Underground Light
by MAL-sama
Summary: There've been strange pokemon sightings in the underground tunnels of Sinnoh. Ryou, a fastpaced trainer, decides to check things out, but ends up discovering a whole new world deep within the earth, and even a mysterious type of pokemon!
1. Who's that Pokemon?

Disclaimer: I do not own any copyrights related to the pokemon/nintendo franchise. If you wish to sue me, go ahead. I have absolutely nothing of value you could sue me for. X3

Note: This fic shall take place in the Sinnoh Region. Ryou is the name I gave my rival character in Diamond, so whenever you see the name "Ryou", please assume this is the rival character from the Diamond/Pearl games.

* * *

"Ryou, dinner's ready!" his mother shouted up the stairs. Before she could blink, her boy came rushing downstairs, his feet making loud thuds on the floor as he approached. As soon as she finished her blink, her boy had already helped himself to a large helping of Nira Tama(1), and was already fishing out his chopsticks from the appropriate drawer.

Ryou took a seat at the table, placing his hands together, and happily cried, "Itadakimasu!(2)" and dug in. The TV was emitting sounds of a cooking show, one of his mother's favorites, and she was helping herself to her share of the Nira Tama. As he neared finishing his meal, and his mother had just started on hers, a news broadcast interrupted his mother's cooking show.

"We are sorry to inconvenience you by interrupting whatever show you were watching," the female newscaster started, "but we have some startling news on what could perhaps be a new, undiscovered species of pokemon." Ryou slurped down the last of his meal and put all of his attention on the TV screen. "Lately, there have been sightings of a strange creature eating the spheres various people and trainers have buried within the underground tunnels. According to the witnesses who saw this creature, it looked like 'an Eevee in some kind of mole form.' the Jubilife News station is currently offering rewards for any clear photographs and or the capture of this creature for proof of existance. The reward will depend on the quality of the photo, or the condition of the creature. Thank you, and enjoy your regularly scheduled program."

A large grin spread across Ryou's face as the TV showed his mother's cooking show again. "I'm going to be the first person to capture this new pokemon!" he announced joyfully, getting up and rushing out the door at the speed of a motor vehicle. His mother sighed and shook her head.

"He could've at least washed his dishes before he ran off like that..." she mumbled, eyeing her son's bowl and chopsticks that were just lying there on the table.

* * *

About an hour later, Ryou was in the underground tunnels of Sinnoh burying some spheres he had just dug up from the walls. He then walked away for about ten feet and sat down to wait for the mysterious creature to pop up. About ten minutes later, what seemed like forever in Ryou's mind, his shperes started shifting around in the dirt where he had buried them. He focused his attention on them, eyeing them anxiously. A couple of the prism spheres he buried popped out of their hiding place, along with what seemed like a smooth, wiggling raisin. A few whiskers followed the raisin, along with the head of some mole-ish creature.

Ryou had dug out a Dusk Ball from his bag by now and mumbled, "It really does look like an Eevee!" The creature's attention was focused on the prism sphere, which it was constantly sniffing, so Ryou figured that it was a good chance to try an capture this thing right now. He quickly tossed his Dusk Ball at it, and hit it perfectly on the nose. The ball opened and the creature glowed red for a second, but then the glow shattered and the Dusk Ball flew back into his hands, causing Ryou to blink a few times. "Someone already captured this thing? Aw, man!"

The creature jumped out from the soil, and now its entire body was exposed. It had no tail, a long orb-ish body, and all four of its legs were merely small and round with three claws sticking off of them. As it continued sniffing the sphere, it muttered something that sounded like, "Mole, mole!" Once it finished sniffing the orb, it broke it up with its claws into tiny little pieces, each shard only half an inch large at the most. It then started eating the shards of the sphere, enjoying each shard as if it were a gourmet poffin.

Once it was finished, Ryou had crouched onto his abdomen to become eye level with it and said, "Hello, there!" The creature looked at him with interest, slowly making its way towards him and sniffing him out. It found a more interesting scent, however, within Ryou's bag of spheres, and proceeded towards it. Seeing this, Ryou pulled out some of the various spheres he dug up, moving into an upright sitting position, and held out each orb towards the creature. It sniffed out each sphere, only taking the prism shaped ones and smashing them on the ground so that it could consume them. Once it finished, it rubbed against one of Ryou's legs, muttering, "Mole! Mole!" happily.

A voice came from the tunnel the little mole dig, calling out, "Diggy!!! Where are you? You should've come back by now!!!" Ryou identified the voice as that of a girl around his age, and noticed the little mole creature was making its way back towards the hole it dug. Before it went back in, it looked back at Ryou and cutely waved one of its paws at him, and then jumped in. He blinked, then stared at the hole it escaped into. Just as he was deeply lost in thought as to where the creature might've gone, or who it might've belonged to, the ground beneath him suddenly felt hollow and weak. He blinked for a second, and then he floor he was sitting on gave way, causing him to fall who knows how far down, screaming in shock the whole way.

As soon as Ryou landed, he was greeted by the giggle of some girl, causing him to look towards the source. He saw the mole creature from before being held in the arms of a very pale girl. She wore boots that went over her knees, a skirt that just barley went below her knees, a tee-shirt, a sleeveless jacket, and one of those winter hats with the little poof ball on the top, all some shade of green. Her hair was short, just curling towards her head at the top of her neck, and was a jet black color. Her eyes, which looked pure and innocent, were a deep shade of sapphire blue. All over her clothes were these strange black X's, each with a red dot in the center.

"Hello there," the girl said. "My name's Shinju, and I'm sure you've already met Diggy here. What's your name?"

"Umm, Ryou," he answered, getting off of his bum and rubbing it. "Just what is Diggy, anyways?"

"Oh, you don't know? Diggy's a pokemon, silly!" She giggled.

"I knew that, I mean, what kind of pokemon is it?"

"He's a Moleon.(3)"

Ryou blinked. "A what?"

"A Moleon," Shinju stated, as if it were an obvious fact.

"What's a Moleon?"

"It's an evolved form of Eevee, silly! Isn't it obvious?"

"What type is it?"

"Isn't it obvious? He's a ground-type!" She giggled again.

"And how does an Eevee evolve into Moleon, exactly?"

"You use a dusk stone on a boy to get it to become a Moleon." She paused. "What kind of pokemon do you have?" she asked, looking curious.

"I got a lot of pokemon! Wanna battle me so we can see what kind of pokemon each other has?"

"Um, okay! How many pokemon each?"

"How about a full six on six match?"

"Alrighty! But, why did you say 'full' when someone can carry more than six?"

Ryou blinked. "You've got more than six pokemon on you?"

Shinju nodded. "Uh-huh! I've got every form of Eevee on me, each inside of its own ball!" she replied happily, pointing to the X's on her outfit.

"But... Those don't look like Pokeballs..."

Shinju blinked. "What's a 'Pokeball?'"

"You don't know? It's what you use to catch a pokemon." Ryou dug out a few kinds of them, showing them to Shinju. "The regular kind, the red and white ones, are good for beginning trainers. The blue ones with red on the top halves, called Great Balls, have a higher catch rate than the regular ones. The ones with black and yellow on the top, called Ultra Balls, have-"

"Hold on a second!" Shinju interrupted. "Why do you have so many different catching devices with different catch rates when you could just use an Eaveon(4) X?"

"A what?"

"An Eaveon X! These crosses on my outfit!" She pointed at them again.

"And just how do those catch pokemon?" Ryou asked, with his left eyebrow slightly higher than his right one.

"How about I just show you?"

She pushed the red dot on the X that was on the front of her hat, and the X popped off. The ends of the X curled so that they connected about one and a half inches from the red dot, and a green bubble appeared in the empty space. A line formed from at the sides, starting at the red circle and ending in the back of what now clearly looked like a strange pokeball. She tapped the red button on her pokemon's forehead and it glowed red, then was sucked into the ball. The line disappeared, as did the green part of the ball, and it returned to the black X it was while it was resting on her hat. Ryou looked absolutely dumbfounded at the sight of these strange Pokeballs at work and could only gawk at the X which now contained Shinju's Moleon.

"How did-!?! Where's-!?!" Ryou mumbled, unable to form a sentence. Shinju giggled again, then put the X back on her hat.

"You have no idea how these work, do you?" Ryou shook his head. "Where are you from?"

"Twinleaf Town."

"Where's that?"

"It's about 5 kilometers up from here. Why?"

"You mean there are places with people in higher sections of the Earth?"

"More like on the surface of the Earth."

"So you're not surrounded by rocks?"

"Not unless I'm in a cave or the Underground tunnels. Why, do you live further down?"

"Yeah, It's about ten minutes if you have a Moleon dig through the rocks."

Ryou paused, taking a moment to let all the information sink in. "Could you show me?" he asked.

"Sure! But you have to show me this surface world, too, okay?"

Ryou nodded. Shinju then started walking in some direction, motioning for him to follow, and they eventually reached a tunnel going further into the earth at a 30 degree angle. It seemed like it was too smal for an adult to fit through, but just large enough for the two of them to slide down with a little wiggle room.

"So this is the way in?" Ryou asked.

Shinju nodded. "Yup! Just follow me!" She jumped into the hole, sliding downward at about 5mph, and once she was out of sight, Ryou wriggled in after her, surprised at how smooth the tunnel was as he slid down into a place no one on the surface ever knew about.

* * *

(1)Nira Tama is a Japanese dish. It's kinda like a leek stew with eggs in it.

(2)Itadakimasu is what the Japanese say before every meal. It's kind of like thanking the chef, saying thanks for the food, that sort of stuff. And since the Pokemon games were originally from Japan, why not throw in some Japanese cultural stuff in a Pokemon fanfic?

(3)Moleon is pronounced Mole-ee-on. It's an evolved form of Eevee I made up.

(4)Eaveon is pronounced A(as in the letter)-vay-on. This word will come up later on in the story, especially when Shinju talks about where she's from.

Well, that broke a record for me. The longest I've written so far is 3 and a half pages! This one got a little over 4. Not much of a stretch, I know, but that's good enough for me!


	2. The Grand ones

Disclaimer: I still do not own rights to Pokemon. I still own nothing for which you could sue me for. Get the picture?

Note: To those of you waiting for me to update my Naruto and or Yu-Gi-Oh! fics, please be patient. I do have another part of the Yu-Gi-Oh! one typed up. I just don't have it on the only computer with internet in my house.

* * *

As Ryou had finally slid out of the tunnel, he was caught off guard by something. Something very wet. In fact, this wet something had accidentally invaded his lungs. Just as he was about to panic, he felt a current push him up towards the surface, allowing him to cough up the water he breathed to replace it with sweet, sweet air. Once he recovered, he looked around. He was in a small lake, which was surrounded by a vast variety of flora.

"How can all these flowers grow down here?" he mumbled to himself.

Just then, something caught his eye. A Vaporeon emerged from the water and climbed onto shore. As if answering Ryou's question, it pointed its tail up towards the ceiling. When he looked, he saw that it was glowing. He couldn't tell what made it glow, but it was just bright enough to be able to tell colors of various objects thanks to that light.

"Swimzy!!!" Shinu's voice called out. "Hurry up!!! I don't have all day, you know!!!"

The Vaporeon trotted off, leaving Ryou to conclude that it belonged to Shinju. He swam to the edge of the lake and followed it for who knows how long. He stopped when he saw the Vaporeon glow red, then vanished in a direction near the ceiling. He looked, and saw Shinju perched on a cliff about her height away from the ceiling. She was waving with a smile, motioning for Ryou to climb up to her. He found some holes in the wall that were just big enough for his feet and hands to fit in leading up to her spot, so he took advantage of them and climbed.

"What took you so long, Ryou?" Shinju asked as he had placed both feet firmly on the cliff.

"How did you get here so fast?" Ryou asked.

"I slid down the tunnel and walked here, silly!" She giggled. "Plus, I had Swimzy turn into a sort of wave to carry me quickly to the edge of the lake at the end."

"Then why didn't it do that for me?"

"I don't think I told it to, really. Swimzy's lazy. If I don't tell her to do something, most of the time, she won't bother doing it."

"Why'd you climb up here, anyways?"

"Oh, right! I wanted to show you something!"

Shinju pulled what looked like a large nail out from under her hat and started using it to pick at the glowing ceiling. Eventually, a chunk fell out of the ceiling and Ryou caught it. Shinju took it from him and tapped the rock all over with her nail until it eventually cracked in two. In one of the halves lie a small, glowing orb that glowed a tad bit brighter than the rock it came from. She took it out of the rock and held it clear in Ryou's view.

"Do you know what this is?" Shinju asked. Ryou shook his head.

"Why? What is it?"

"I don't know, really. No on ever told me that little orbs like this one were lodged inside the glowing rocks. What I do know is that when you place it near an Eevee, it changes into a whole new type of pokemon that hasn't been seen anywhere! I might even be the first person to own one of them!"

"Can I see this mysterious pokemon?"

"Once we get to that battle of ours, you can!" She winked. "Now, I'm not sure about whether or not the head honcho will let you into the village, so how about I answer some questions you might have about where I live?"

"Ummm, yeah. How can a bunch of people live down here? Isn't there an oxygen problem?"

"Nope. The Leafeon take care of that. They can perform photosynthesis using the glow from the ceiling rocks, the various lakes, and the nutrients in the ground!"

"Where do you get food?"

"The Leafeon and Moleon work together to make crop-friendly soil, the humans plant various seeds, and the Vaporeon water them every now and then, resulting in glorious 10,000 foot high crops that everyone can pick and eat for themselves!" Shinju giggled. "And they all taste real great, too! Especially the aparagus!" She had a huge grin on her face.

"You mean you actually like asparagus? Ewww!!!" Ryou stuck his tounge out in disgust.

"It's not all that bad! Just drown it in corn if you don't like it."

"SHINJU, YOU GET DOWN FROM HERE THIS INSTANT!!!" a male voice shouted.

Shinju jumped slightly from the voice and checked to see where it came from. It was an adult wearing green robes with short, black hair and the same blue eyes Shinju had. She blinked for a second before waving at the person with a smile and laughter.

"It's alright, Papa! If I fall, I'll sue this kid a million for the injuries!"

She giggled and jumped down, causing the man to panic. He ran to catch her, but had tripped over a rock in the process, landing face first into the ground. She then landed square on his back on the tips of her toes, causing a strange cracking sound to echo through the area along with her father's groan of pain. Shinju merely giggled at her father.

"You sure have funny ways of catching me, Papa!" she said, helping him up and helping him with his back. "Hurry up and get down here, Ryou! If you don't, I'll sue you ten million for breaking my father's back!"

Ryou leaped from the cliff and landed with ease right next to her and had an upset look to his face.

"Why sue me when YOU'RE the one who broke his back!?!" he nearly shouted.

"Because it's fun to see you mad like that!" Shinju giggled, then faced her father. "Papa, this is Ryou. Ryou, this is my Papa. Ryou's from the surface world, Papa! Isn't that exciting?"

"Really, now?" He looked towards Ryou, studying him intently with his hand cupped on his chin. "His skin does look more sun-bathed than ours. Tell me, where did you find him?"

"I found in in the Moleon feeding grounds! He says that his people call that area the 'Underground Tunnels'! Isn't that neat, Papa? Surface dwellers walk around in the same place where our Moleon find their food! It's a wonder they haven't found us by now, Papa!" Shinju was giggling, moving her boy in energetic ways as she spoke.

"Hold it, how did you know that the Underground Tunnels are called that?" Ryou asked. "I never mentioned it!"

"Diggy told me! He said he overheard some voices talking about it while he was eating!" She giggled.

"Wait, so you can understand pokemon?" Ryou asked.

Shinju looked perplexed by his question. "You mean surface dwellers can't understand what Pokemon are saying?"

Ryou shook his head. "All we hear are the pokemon saying their names over and over again in various ways."

Shinju's eyebrows scrunched together in an angry fashion. "Well, that's just weird. Everyone in Eaveon can understand pokemon as if we spoke the same language!" Shinju's brows loosened for a second as she blinked. "Oh yeah! Papa, what is it that you want?"

"A trainer has beaten the Grand ones and now wishes for a battle with you."

Shinju sighed with a tired look on her face, shaking her head. "Another one? When will they learn that they can't beat me?"

"Who are the 'Grand ones'?" Ryou asked.

Shinju blinked and faced him. "They're the 17 best trainers in Eaveon. They each have a team that consists of a specific form of Eevee. To obtain proof that you've defeated them, first you must defeat them in a single battle, and them a double battle the next day. If you beat them all, you get to face the strongest trainer in all of Eaveon. If you win, you become the strongest trainer in Eaveon!"

"So i take it you're the best?" Ryou asked.

Shinju nodded energetically. "Yep! And so far, no one has been able to defeat my mystery pokemon! I've been the best for over a year now! Just one more month and I'll have set a new record!" She giggled again.

Ryou now had a smirk across his face. "So I'll have to earn the right to challenge you, then?"

"Yep! I'll let you watch the new guy fight me, though. That way you can start thinking about how to beat me, kay?"

Ryou noded, then turned to face Shinju's father. "So, where is this guy?" he asked.

"He's waiting in front of our door, Shinju. Why don't you go and meet him so that you can get the battle over with?"

"Okay! But, Papa, would you show Ryou around so that he can challenge the Grand ones?"

Her father nodded. Shinju giggled in response and ran off energetically, leaving a trail of dust behind her, and dropping the orb she showed Ryou earlier.

"What's that?" Her father mumbled. He bent down to pick it up, but Ryou beat him to it. "I think I'll take this, sir. I wanna see how it'll effect my Pokemons' strength."

"Alright. But could you not call me 'sir'? I have a name, you know."

"Well, you never told me!"

"It's Roger."

"Alright, Roger. Now where's Shinju going to battle? She said she'd let me watch."

"It wouldn't matter anyways."

"Why not?"

"By the time we'd get there, she would have already creamed the guy. I saw how he fights, and trust me, he isn't all that good."

"What happens if you lose to her?"

"You'll have to beat the Grand ones again before you can face her another time."

"Wow. How many people has she battled, other than the Grand ones?"

"I lost track about a week into her career as the best. Now shall we get going to the first Grand one?"

"Yes! And if we don't get there within on day, I'll fine you one million for taking so long!"

Roger chuckled. "You seem an awful lot like my daughter so far, Ryou. You wanna be her boyfriend?"

Ryou's eyes went wide. "WHAT!?!"

"Joking, joking. I'm just anxious to see her get married and have some beautiful children of her own. I've asked so many boys that question that I lost track."

Ryou's left eyebrow reached for the sky. "And does Shinju know you've been doing this?"

"Yep. And she's pummeled me every time she found out."

Ryou got an anime sweat drop. "And is your wife this anxious to see her with children?"

"Not at all. In fact, she pummels me every time she finds out I've been trying to get Shinju with some boy I find lying on the ground, too."

_I can just tell this adventure's going to be fun._ Ryou thought sarcastically.

* * *

I bet you're all wondering when Ryou will see this mystery Pokemon of Shinju's, right? Well, too bad! You're just going to have to wait! ;P And I know I said this'll take place in the Sinnoh region. Just be patient, kay? 


	3. Catching Pokemon and Registering

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. I don't own anything. Sue me? You'll get nothing.

Note: I bet some of you've noticed that I didn't properly capitalise "Grand ones", ne? Well, I just didn't think to capitalise that "o", and now it's sticking like that, kay?

* * *

After a long walk through various weaving tunnels, Roger had finally led Ryou into what looked like an Eevee paradise. There were Eevees of all sorts of shapes and sizes and designs, and they were all happily playing various Eevee games. Ryou could only stare in disbelief at the sight, for he had never seen a single Eevee in his life, let alone so many at once!

Roger saw his look and blinked. "What's the matter, Ryou?"

"I've never seen an Eevee before," the boy replied. "They're supposed to be rare on the surface, but to see this many at once is astonishing! I just have to catch a few!"

He had a large grin on his face as he reached for a Pokeball with one of his trusted Pokemon partners inside. Roger cleared his throat, which took Ryou off guard, startling him into dropping his ball.

"How does someone from the surface like you capture a Pokemon?" Roger asked.

"We send out a Pokemon we've caught before to weaken the wild Pokemon and throw a ball at it, then hope it stays in." Ryou replied, picking up his Pokemon.

"That sounds very cruel and inefficient."

"Cruel? Inefficient? How?"

"Well, our Pokeball technology has advanced so far that we have no need to weaken wild ones, because the Eaveon X's have a 100 percent catch rate."

"100 percent? That sounds like a Master Ball. Those things are rare on the surface. How can you people have so many?"

Roger shrugged. "Our technologies are focused on keeping Pokemon happy while they're inside their X's. Scientists have found that no Pokemon is truly happy confined within a ball, so they experimented for years before they found a way that works."

"And how would that be?"

Roger shrugged again. "It was a complete fluke, really. After the first X was made, they couldn't recreate any more of them, so they tried getting Espeon to duplicate the X's while keeping both the original and copy in perfect working order. It's worked ever since."

"Wow. Can I have an X to try them out?"

"Sure. I can even transfer the Pokemon you currently own into empty ones so you can always have them with you at all times."

"Great!"

Ryou grinned widely as he gave his Pokemon to Roger. Roger then pulled a few X's out of his pockets and held one of them so that the button on the X touched the button on Ryou's Pokeball. The two objects glowed red for a second, then Ryou's ball fell to the floor as if it failed to catch a Pokemon. The X curled up and an orange orb filled the space inside it, and a crack appeared along the center. The red glow faded and the ball flew into Ryou's hands, catching him off guard for a second. The orange orb then disappeared and the X returned to its dormant state. This repeated for the five other balls, then Roger handed Ryou more dormant ones.

Ryou looked eagerly at the Eevee in the area and asked, "How do I use these to catch Pokemon?"

"Aim it at the Pokemon as if it were a scope with the button facing you, then press the button. A red dot should appear on the Pokemon you aimed at. If not, just move the X around until you get the dot on the Pokemon. Once the dot is clearly on the Pokemon, let go of the button, and the X will fly out of your hand and at the Pokemon, with the button facing the Pokemon. Once the X makes contact, the Pokemon will glow red and be drawn into the X. The X will then curl into a ball as you've seen before, then fly into your hands. Once that happens, the Pokemon is yours."

"What if the Pokemon gets smart and tries to run?"

"The X will home in on it as long as the red dot was somewhere on the Pokemon."

"Okay! Now, which one shall I try these things on first?"

Ryou scanned the area quickly, spotting a group of Eevees chasing after one another as if they were playing tag. They were all amazingly fast, but the one in front caught his attention the best. On its head were tufts of fur that curled up in the exact same ways his hair did, and it was at least three feet in front of the other Eevees playing with it. He aimed the X at this one, and pressed the button. A red dot appeared on the Eevee's foreleg, so Ryou let go of the button and happily watched as the X chased after it.

This caught the energetic Eevee's attention, and it started making various maneuvers to dodge it. It was making multiple sharp turns, multiple leaps, and it even ran at the X a few times to dodge it from underneath it. Ryou, along with the Eevees playing with this one, watched curiously and happily as their friend was trying to evade capture.

Eventually, the little thing made a wrong maneuver in rushing into a crowd of Eevees just curled up into little fluff balls napping, and crashed right into them. This awakened the napping fluff balls and allowed enough distraction to the target for the X to bump into its head, making it glow red and drawing it into the strange device. It flew into Ryou's hands while the Eevee's friends watched, and he blinked, staring at the ball.

"That was a great first try, Ryou!" Roger said suddenly, breaking the boy from his trance. "And it looks like you picked a good Eevee too. A nice, fast one, and it even looked like you to an extent."

"Thanks!" Ryou blurted.

His attention was diverted once more by what felt like a nudge on his leg. He looked, and all of the Eevee that were playing with the one he just caught were staring at him, as if a little child performing the puppy dog eyes maneuver on his or her parent to attempt to gain something from said adult.

"Hi!" Ryou said, grinning down at the cute Eevees staring at him. "Do you miss your friend already?"

The group of Eevees nodded. _Can we go with you?_ Ryou heard in his head. It sounded like a group of small children to him.

He blinked, then muttered, "Did you guys just say something to me?"

The Eevees nodded and rubbed against him more, like a bunch of cats pleading for a meal. Ryou eventually gave in to the cuteness and used some of his X's to catch each and every one of them. They then flattened into their dormant state, so he put them in his bag in a pocket he never really used before.

"It's not surprising that those Eevee wanted to go with you," Roger explained. "Many Eevee don't like the idea of being separated from their friends, so when one of them gets captured, they tend to ask the trainer to capture the rest of them so they won't have to miss their friend. And the trainers always oblige, mainly because the Eevee act too cutely to be resisted."

"That's nice and all, but can we get to that first Grand one already? I wanna hurry up and battle!"

"Patience, Ryou. We have to make sure to register you first!"

Ryou nearly pulled an anime fall, and laughed nervously. "I guess I kinda forgot that I might have to do that here..."

"It's alright. You're new here, and you don't know the rules. We'll register in that building over there, alright?"

Roger was pointing to a small building with a purple roof on it. It had a set of glass double doors with small orb-ish handles, and the rest of the building was a sickly green color. There were red mats visible on each side of the doors, both inside and outside. It wouldn't have taken them long to reach the building, but a few groups of playing Eevee occasionally rushed in front of the two males, causing them to nearly trip each time.

Once they made it to the building, the doors glided open with a cool swoosh-beep mix of a sound, and they stepped in, the doors gliding shut behind them. A green haired woman, who looked like an officer of sorts with a purple uniform greeted them with a bow.

"Welcome, Roger. And your guest as well," she said formally. "May I ask your reason for visiting?"

Roger nodded. "I've come to get this boy registered."

The officer nodded and said, "Right this way," motioning with her hand the direction they should go.

They walked towards a large screen with a circular lens right at Ryou's eye level and a slot below it just big enough for a Pokedex.

"What's this for?" Ryou asked.

The officer smiled at him. "Just face the lens below the screen and make your camera face. The computer will then ask you a few questions, and then it will give you a Pokedex with your Eaveon trainer card through the slot. If you don't understand a question, just ask me and I'll do my best to clear things up, okay?"

Ryou nodded and faced the lens as he was told. The screen glowed blue, and then showed an image of Ryou and the environment behind him.

"Do you wish to be registered, boy?" a feminine computer voice asked.

"Yes, I do," he replied.

The screen took the image it currently displayed and shrunk it into the upper left-hand corner, showing a new screen with 17 different images of different Pokemon. Ryou could recognise only nine of them.

"Please indicate which of these Pokemon you own and how many of each," the voice instructed.

"I own nine Eevees," Ryou replied.

The screen then pulled the image of an Eevee from where it was on the screen and multiplied it by nine, and sent those images to the one of Ryou in the upper left-hand corner.

"Are there any others on this screen?" the computer asked.

"No."

"Are there any not on this screen?"

"Yes."

"Please let those Pokemon out of their X's so that I may register them."

Ryou did so, letting out his Floatzel, Staraptor, Heracross, Snorlax, Rapidash, and Torterra. This surprised the officer and Roger. The officer was more shocked, and Roger was more curious. The computer locked the individual images of each of Ryou's Pokemon, sending them to the image in the left-hand corner.

"Are there any more Pokemon?"

"No."

The images of the Pokemon disappeared and were replaced with a screen of various colors. Ryou then put his Pokemon away.

"Please pick your favorite colors from the ones shown."

Ryou took a look at the colors, then replied, "Red, orange, and yellow."

The screen now only showed those colors.

"Are these shades fine, or do you wish to change them?"

"Ummm, make them firey shades."

The colors changed, showing an image of a flame with all three of those colors clearly visible.

"Is this good, or do you wish to change it?"

"That's good."

The flame was sent to the image in the upper left-hand corner, and then the image there grew, along with smaller images representing each thing the computer had asked Ryou about.

"Please state your name."

"Ryou Hayaku.(1)"

"Is this information correct, Ryou Hayaku?"

"Yes, it is."

"Please wait as the information is processed."

The smaller images danced around on the screen while a loading bar appeared in the middle. It filled up quickly, and when it was full, the screen now displayed the word "Done!" with lines coming off of it like a kid would draw rays on a sun. A Pokedex popped out of the slot. It was very glittery in appearance, and as Ryou pulled it out, the colors smoothly changed from red to yellow and back again, as if from a flame. This happened mainly as he moved it around to study it.

While he was doing so, a card popped out with his picture in the upper left-hand corner, and the card had a fire pattern all over it. His name was in a bold green lettering in a pointy serif(2) font. There was also a white rectangle below the name. Ryou picked up the card and looked at the back. It had an image of each of his Pokemon on it. There were nine Eevees, and one of them even had the tufts of hair like he did.

_How did the computer know what that Eevee looked like?_ He wondered.

Once Ryou finished wondering how the computer knew, he inspected his new Pokedex further. He found a button and pushed it. A screen slid out from one of the wider ends of the Pokedex, showing images of each of the Pokemon he caught. He touched the top of the screen, making it shrink back into the Pokedex. He now noticed a slot that looked just big enough for his card to slide in.

_I suppose this is where the card goes._ He thought as he returned it to the slot.

"You have to sign that before you leave here," the officer pointed out.

"Oh. Got a pen?"

The officer gave Ryou a pen straight from one of the pockets on her pants, and he quickly signed his card on the white rectangle, then returned the pen and card to their rightful places.

"Now you can go face the Grand ones," Roger said. "Shall we go?"

"Of course! I wanna hurry up and battle Shinju as soon as I can!" Ryou replied energetically with a wide grin on his face.

"Alrighty, then. Let's go."

And the two of them left the building, with the officer waving them off.

* * *

(1)Hayaku-This means early or fast in Japanese. I thought it'd go well with Ryou's character.

(2)Serif fonts-How to explain this... Okay, you know how when you write in printing, especially capital T's, that you'd generally draw two straight lines? Well, to make it look serif-y, just draw tiny little lines coming off of the edges of the lines. If you don't get it through my explanation, look it up on Google or something, kay?

WOO! NEW PAGE RECORD! This one got a little over six pages! And, it has enough words to make up for the fact that I didn't reach the 2,000 word mark on the last chapter. Yayz! 3


	4. The Grand First

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. Don't sue me. I have nothing.

Note: Not much to say except that there should be an encounter with a Grand one this time.

* * *

Roger led Ryou through the city, which was filled with many colorful buildings, until they reached a building with structures that looked like Eevee ears protruding from the roof. The building was brown and cream in color, much like an Eevee, and the door was much like that on the registration building.

"Here we are," Roger announced. "The building where the first Grand one should be. I wish you luck, Ryou."

Ryou grinned. "Like heck I'll need luck! I'll be able to win with my awesome skill on the first try without even breaking a sweat!"

Roger chuckled. "Whatever you say. Spectators aren't allowed in, so I'll be leaving you here, alright?"

"Whatever. I'll be fine on my own. See ya later, Pops!"

Ryou walked inside, leaving Roger with a confused look.

"Pops?" He muttered to himself. "Did he just insult me?"

Once Ryou was inside, he looked around. There was a brown and cream color scheme on the inside, too, along with various Eevees painted on the walls, each in its own playful pose. There were even Eevee statues and a couple of fountains, especially near the door to the far end of the room. That door was very Eevee-fied, as well. It was brown and had decorations of dancing Eevee. There were even cute little Eevee heads as doorknobs.

_Are all the Grand ones' buildings going to be like this?_ Ryou thought as he headed for the door, reaching for the knobs.

Just as he was about to grab one, however, he was slammed into the door by what he perceived to be a pair of arms wrapped around them, along with the weight of someone around his age.

"Ryou-kun!(1) Where in the underworld have you been?" a familiar voice asked childishly from behind him.

Ryou sweat dropped as he pried the pale arms from around his chest and replied, "I've been with your father getting registered, Shinju."

"Why? Weren't you going to watch me fight?"

"Your father told me that you'd pummel the guy too quickly for me to get there in time, so he took me to get registered."

"What!?! That idiot!" Shinju pouted. "I was holding back and taking extra care to make sure you'd at least get to see my strange Pokemon! Papa's getting pummeled for this."

She was now kicking at the ground, making skid marks appear on the floor.

"Well, your father neglected to mention that you might do that, so I just followed him without question."

"Stupid baka(2)..." Shinju mumbled. Now she stopped kicking the floor, and she even had a most cheerful look to her face. "But! Now I can watch you fight against the Grand ones!"

Ryou blinked. "Your father said spectators weren't allowed in."

"I know, but the best trainer in Eaveon has the right to watch his or her potential next fight! Isn't that amazing?"

"Sounds maore like cheating to me."

Shinju pouted. "When you put it that way, it does. Meanie. Now are you going to battle the Grand First or not?"

"The Grand First?"

"That's what Eaveon officials call this Grand one. Now are you going to battle or not!?!"

"Of course I'm going to battle the Grand First!"

Just as Ryou reached for the doorknob, the door was thrown open, slamming right into his face.

"What's wid all da wacket?" a childish girl's voice asked. "I was twying to take a nappy!!!"

"Sorry about that, Kawaii-chan.(3) Me and Ryou-kun were fighting."

"Wyou-kun? Who's dat?"

The door closed, and the source of the voice appeared. It was a little girl, age five, maybe, with brown hair. It was groomed down, like the fluff of fur around an Eevee's neck. She had the most adorable brown eyes imaginable, and a cute cream colored sun dress. There were only four X's in sight on her clothes, and they were all along the edge of her sun dress. She was holding a stuffed Eevee in her arms, and was rubbing her right eye with her free hand whilst looking where Ryou was. He was holding his face and muttering angrily at the pain while tears steadily flew down his cheeks.

"Is dis cwybaby Wyou-kun?"

Ryou stopped holding his face and shot a glare at this girl.

"I'm not a cwy—crybaby!!!" He nearly yelled. "That door slammed into my face! Do you have any idea how much that hurts!?!"

The girl giggled. "Sowwy. My bad. My name's Kawaii-chan, and I'm da Gwand Fist!" She giggled again.

"Don't you mean Grand First?"

"Dat's what I said! The Gwand Fist! I just have twuble wid my awes!"

"Oh. Well, would you mind having a battle with me?"

"Not at all, Wyou-kun! It'd be a gweat way to wake me up!" She giggled, then rushed through to the next room, slamming Ryou's face with the door again. "Sowwy, Wyou-kun!"

Ryou rubbed his face, grumbling as he followed after Kawaii, with Shinju hanging onto his arm. This new room was an arena with an Eevee statue in each corner, each having its own battling pose. The floor looked like the ground outside, with white markings on it to show where the Pokemon were allowed to fight. Kawaii was already on the other side of the field, holding her stuffed Eevee ever so cutely and staring at Ryou with anticipation.

"Is Wyou-kun weady fow his one-on-one battle?" she asked.

"Yes, I am." Ryou replied.

"Den send out yo Pokemon! It's customawy fow da challengaw to pick fist."

"Okay, then."

Ryou browsed through the X's he had put away and noticed that they had writing on them, saying which Pokemon was inside and how long ago it was first put into the X. The X with his first Eevee in it even made note of the special tufts of hair it had, and the other Eevees were noted to be the first one's friends.

He took the X out that contained his special Eevee and said, "I'll go for this little guy. I just caught it and I wanna see how it fights."

"Okies!" Kawaii said happily. "I get a lot of fist-timaws, so I'm used to it."

"Great! Now, go, Speedy!"

Ryou pressed the red button on the X, making it curl into an orange ball like the others did with his first six Pokemon. He then tossed the ball, making it open up and release that fast Eevee he caught before.

_I suppose Speedy's what you're going to call me? _A little boy's voice asked in Ryou's head as his Eevee looked towards him.

"Yep! You're going to be Speedy because of how fast you were back there!" Ryou replied.

_That's a _real _original nickname there, owner. How'd you come up with it? Did you pull it out of a hat or something?_ The Eevee asked.

"Hey, don't insult my nicknaming abilities, Speedy!"

_I was just poking fun, owner. And don't worry. I like it. You can call me that all you want._

"I would've called you that anyways!"

Kawaii giggled. "I can just tell you two awe going to be best buddies foweva!" She detached an X from her sun dress. "Now go, Cutesy!"

She threw her X like Ryou did, and what came out was an Eevee that looked well groomed. It was holding an Everstone in its mouth with its teeth, and its eyes were just as adorable as its owner's were.

_Yay! I get to battle again!_ A voice similar to Kawaii's giggled.

"Da challengaw's suppos'ta go fist, kay?"

"Alright. So, um, Speedy, what can you do?" Ryou asked.

_I can use tackle, dig, sand-attack, tail whip, quick attack, agility, extremespeed, and this one attack that I'm not sure of the name to._

"How can you use extremespeed?"

_I've been practicing according to how I've seen other Pokemon do it, and some of them even corrected me as I went. I can assure you I have perfect form when it comes to using it._

"Alright, let's start off with a quick attack!"

_Starting off slowly? Alright._

Speedy braced himself and then shot off like a little brown rocket towards Cutesy. The poor little Eevee could only blink before Speedy made contact, sending her flying right into her trainer's arms with dizzy eyes.

"Cutesy is unable to battle!" Shinju declared. "The round goes to Speedy!"

"Wow!" Ryou gasped. "That was amazing, Speedy! How'd you get so strong?"

_Remember those sleeping Eevee I crashed into when you caught me? That bunch don't take lightly to being disturbed from their naps, so along with getting faster to avoid them, I got stronger so that I could stand a chance against them._

"Then they must've been pretty strong if that's only standing a chance to them! I made a good choice when I picked you out!"

_Of course you did._

"Dat was a gweat fist battle fow yo Speedy!" Kawaii said as she recalled her Cutesy. "But dis next one'll weally twow yo Speedy off its balance! Go, Bootsey!"

The next Eevee that came out was another well groomed one with an Everstone in its mouth, but its feet were cream colored as if it had boots on.

_So it's my turn to fight? Alright, then._ An adult male voice said calmly.

"Bootsey, use ice beam on dat Speedy!"

The Eevee obeyed, sitting down and opening its mouth, while keeping the Everstone in, and an orb of light blue light formed in front of the stone. Beams of that light shot from the orb and towards Speedy at an alarmingly quick rate.

"Speedy, use agility to dodge, then use tackle!"

_Great! We're picking up the pace!_ Speedy said as it obeyed his owner, dodging the ice beam with grace.

He then rushed towards Bootsey with great speed and ran into him with such force that he was sent rolling backwards into his owner. Once Bootsey recovered, it shot a slight glare towards Speedy.

_You're going to ruffle my perfectly groomed fur at that rate, Speedy. I suggest you kick your game up a notch if you wish to harm me._

_But I sent you flying backwards! How can you not be hurt?_

_I was given as much iron as I could stomach. Hurting me with attacks like that won't be easy._

"Alright, then, Speedy, use extremespeed!"

_On it!_

Speedy sped towards Bootsey at an unreal pace, almost breaking the sound barrier, and was about to make contact when-

"Bootsey! Use dig!"

-Bootsey dug into the ground, causing Speedy to hit the ground hard.

_Owww..._

"Speedy, go in after it with another extremespeed!"

_Alright._

Speedy rushed down into the hole at the same speed as last time, disappearing from sight.

"Bootsey, use ice beam!"

"Speedy, dodge with dig!"

A blast of light blue light came out of the tunnel where Bootsey first dug, and Bootsey followed shortly after, spinning like a ball right into the ceiling. When it fell down, it hit the ground hard, and its eyes were spinny. Speedy crawled out of the hole with a triumphant look on his face.

"Bootsey is unable to battle! Speedy wins round two!" Shinju announced.

Kawaii called her booted friend back with a slight frown.

"I fed Bootsey lots of iron! Dat time when he was sent into da ceiling shouldn't have happened! How did he pull it off?"

_While that booted prettyboy was busy with his ice beam attack, I dug around in a circle while still using extremespeed to knock him hard and out of the hole!_

"That was awesome, Speedy! But I think I'll use my other Pokemon now, okay?"

_It's your call, owner._

Ryou put Speedy back in its X and put it away. He then pulled out another X and sent out his next Pokemon at the same time as Kawaii.

"Go, Shellstomp!" Ryou called, sending out his Torterra.

"Time to battle, Wootsey!" Kawaii called, sending out another Eevee. This one had ruffled fur everywhere and the eyes of a fighter. It also had an Evestone in its mouth.

_I'm fighting a big guy now, huh?_ A cocky male voice asked. _This'll be fun!_

_Are you sure you wish to send me out to fight this one? _A calm woman's voice asked.

Ryou assumed this was his Torterra and nodded.

"Wootsey, use shadow claw!"

The Eevee's claws glowed a sinister purple color as it rushed towards Ryou's Torterra, and it slashed Shellstomp right across its face. It merely yawned in response to the minor bruising, putting a slightly frigtened look on Rootsey's(4) face.

"Shellstomp, use leaf storm!"

_Okay._

Ryou's Torterra shook its body, causing a lot of the leaves on the tree on its back to fall, and they all flew at the Eevee like a bunch of leaf-shaped ninja stars. Rootsey freaked at the sight of this attack and tried to dodge it frantically, but failed miserably in doing so and was hit so hard its eyes started spinning.

"Rootsey is unable to battle! Shellstomp wins!" Shinju declared.

Kawaii called Rootsey back while pouting.

"Dat was mean! Attacking widout even giving Wootsey a chance to attack. Oh well. Dis next one's my last one, okay? Go, Lootsey!"

This Eevee also had an Everstone in its mouth, and its fur and eyes were normal for an Eevee.

"Lootsey! Use dig!"

The Eevee dug underground, and Shellstomp merely yawned.

"Shellstomp, use earthquake!"

Shellstomp yawned once more and stomped on the ground harshly. The surface below them started shaking violently, and it was starting to crack where Shellstomp's feet were pounding. Once the crack got big enough, Lootsey was visible.

"Shellstomp, use leaf storm once more!"

The Torterra shook once more, causing more leaves to be shed from its tree, and they flew right at Lootsey. They struck hard, sending the Eevee out of the crack and into the air, and when it landed on solid ground, its eyes were swirling.

"Lootsey is unable to battle! The one-on-one victory goes to Ryou!" Shinju declared.

Ryou jumped for joy, grinning widley and cheering to himself as he called back his Torterra. Kawaii called back her Eevee while pouting.

"You awe a meanie!" She said angrily. "I'm going to kick yow butt tomowwow in ow double battle!"

She pouted and went through another door, matching the one that took Ryou to this arena.

"Double battle?" Ryou asked.

"Didn't I tell you? The day after you beat a grand one in a one-on-one battle, you have to beat that same Grand one in a double battle. Otherwise, you won't get the proof you need to move on to the next Grand one!"

Ryou laughed nervously. "I guess I forgot..."

Shinju pulled an anime fall.

* * *

(1)-kun—This is pretty much a Japanese suffix added to the end of a name to be polite. Kun is for boys, mainly around high school age.

(2)Baka—The Japanese word meaning stupid, idiot, anything that could mean "not smart", I believe.

(3)Kawaii--Kawaii means cute or adorable in Japanese. , -chan--Another Japanese suffix. This one is used towards friends, pets, loved ones, you get the point.

(4)If Rootsey confused you for a second, don't worry. Remember how Kawaii has trouble with her r's? Wootsey is just an example of this.

New page record! A little over seven this time. 3


	5. A Grand Double Battle

Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING!!! Lolz.

Note: Double battle this time. Woo! And, as for the rating change... Yeah... I just can't hold back for this fic on the language anymore. XP Plus, I'm planning some romance later on, and I'm not really sure how far I'll get with that. Definatley no lemons though. This is about pokemon, poeple! Not love and smex!

* * *

After a nice long rest in a house Shinju had rented for the night, Ryou awoke in the room she let him use. It had a flowery theme, which made Ryou grumble as he recalled the occurrences of last night.

"So, where are we going to sleep for the night?" Ryou asked.

"I'll just rent a place," Shinju answered. "Should we go for flowers, kitties, or angels?"

Ryou blinked. "Huh?"

"Those are the three most common themes for rental homes. Pick one so that you won't be mad at me for picking something girly."

"They're all girly themes, if you ask me."

"Well, just pick something already!"

Ryou blinked. "Flowers, I guess..."

"Okies!" Shinju giggled, dragging him to another purple and green building.

This one had lighter shades to the colors and had an array of flowers around it. Shinju left Ryou outside while she rushed in, coming back a few minutes later with a set of keys in her hands.

"I got one! Now let's go!"

She dragged him to a nearby house of the same colors and started unlocking the door.

"How can you tell if it's night here?"

Shinju looked away from the door for a moment.

"You know those glowing rocks on the ceiling? Their glow gets really dim during nights. It's so dim that if we didn't have artificial lighting, we wouldn't be able to see a thing."

"Where do you get the power for your artificial lighting?"

"There's a power plant near the Grand Fifth's building that harnesses the electric energy Jolteon give off."

"Does that mean the Grand Fifth uses Jolteon?"

"Of course! He founded the plant, so it would only make sense he specialises in those. I will warn you, though. His Jolteon are really fast. I had to feed my Pokemon loads of Carbos before I could even stand a chance of beating him!"

The rest of the night consisted of Shinju pulling Ryou around that house and shoving him into a room that was oddly small for a bedroom. There was barley any room for the bed. Ryou then put his things in the closet and sat in the bed. The light outside started dimming quite rapidly, so he turned off the lights and got comfortable in the bed before drifting off into sleep.

_

* * *

_

_I wonder if the Grand First is just as easy in a double battle,_ Ryou wondered as he took his things out of the closet.

As soon as he opened the door to leave that cramped room, he was blasted by a very strong water gun from a Vaporeon. It was an odd attack, though. It smelled like flowers and herbs.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!?!" Ryou shouted at the Vaporeon.

"Don't be mad!" Shinju said, smiling behind the Vaporeon. "Swimzy's just cleaning you off!"

"And how are you going to dry me off?" Ryou asked with an angered look on his face.

"With Wingzy, of course!" She giggled, calling back Swimzy.

"Wingzy?"

"My Grypheon!"

"What's that?"

"Pull out your new Pokedex and just aim it at Wingzy, alright?"

Shinju took an X off of her skirt and called out the Pokemon inside by its nickname, Wingzy. What came out was a gryphon-like creature that resembled an Eevee. Ryou pulled out his Pokedex, as told, and aimed it at the creature.

"Grypheon(1)," a spunky female voice started, "the Gryphon Pokemon. As the flying-type evolution of Eevee, it is very proud of its luxurious feathers, and will attack anyone who dares to dirty or insult them. To obtain one, one must use a Shiny stone on an Eevee when it it very friendly towards you."

After Ryou put his Pokedex away, he got a closer look at Wingzy. It coat of feathers was very luxurious, as if Shinju had spent every hour of every day grooming this creature. Its eyed had a sparkle of nobility, and its beak was a lemon yellow color.

"Alright, Wingzy, dry him off!"

_As you wish,_ a cool, collected female voice replied.

The Grypheon started flapping its wings hard enough to create a strong gust of wind towards Ryou, and after only two seconds, he felt as dry as he was when he got into bed, only now he smelled of flowers and herbs.

"Is this how your people get cleaned every day?" Ryou asked, fixing his hair because the wind and water had messed it up.

"Yep! Now, are you ready for your double battle with the Grand First?"

"Of course I am!"

"Race you to her building?"

"I'll fine you a million if you lose!"

And the two of them dashed off and out of the house, with Shinju having tossed the key onto the floor before she left.

The race was a tie, and Shinju giggled at Ryou.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"We tied! I wonder if that'll say anything about when we battle, Ryou-kun..."

"Don't be too sure yet! I'll be sure to defeat you as if you were nothing more than the Grand First!"

"You wang?" Kawaii's voice asked. The door to her building was open, and she was standing there as the other two blinked at her.

"Good morning, Kawaii-chan!" Shinju greeted. "Why're you up so early?"

"I couldn't sleep! I was too excited thinking about how I would kick Wyou-kun's butt today!" She giggled. "Shall we go, then?"

"Of course!" Ryou replied with a triumphant look to his face.

The two followed Kawaii into the battle arena, which had been repaired since Shellstomp's last earthquake, and stood at her side of the field while Shinju went into the judge's stand.

"This is the second portion of the battle between the Grand First and Ryou Hayaku of the surface world!" Shinju declared. "It shall be a double battle with the normal rules. Challenger picks first, as usual, and the victor will be declared when one of the two trainer's Pokemon are all unable to battle! Are you ready to start?"

Ryou and Kawaii nodded.

"Then start the double battle!"

Ryou sent out his Floatzel and Rapidash, "Go Floatz and Flame!"

"Go, Cutesy and Bootsey!" Kawaii called, sending out her two first Eevee.

_Let's get this show on the road!_ A confident male voice said as Ryou's Floatzel came out.

_Another battle? Alrighty,_ a confident female voice said as Ryou's Rapidash came out.

_Let's defend our trainer, Bootsey!_

_We shall, Cutesy._

"Floatz, use aqua jet! Flame, use fire blast!"

Floatz surrounded himself with water and shot towards Bootsey. Flame's fire blast was aimed towards Cutesy.

"Cutesy, dodge with dig! Bootsey, use ice beam!"

Cutesy dug into the ground, nearly avoiding the flames of the fire blast, and Bootsey shot a beam of light blue light towards Floatz as it approached. Flame's fire blast, however, turned towards Bootsey and hit him in his side, breaking the ice beam before it reached its target. Floatz continued his attack and slammed into Bootsey so hard it sent him flying into the wall with spinning eyes.

"Bootsey is unable to battle!" Shinju declared.

"Meanie! How did yo fiwa blast move aftaw it missed Cutesy?" Kawaii called back Bootsey.

"I've gotten Flame used to changing the directions of her attacks if they ever miss their intended target. And since your Bootsey was too busy using an ice beam to notice the fire blast was coming, it was only inevitable that he would get hit. And because your ice beam never hit Floatz, he was able to keep his attack going strong and knocked your Bootsey out of the ring."

"I'll show you not to be mean to my Eevee like dat! Dig, Wootsey!"

As her next Eevee came out, it dug into the ground immediately, thus leaving both of Kawaii's Eevee out of sight.

"Flame, use flamethrower to get Cutesy out of her hole! Floatz, use hydro pump to do the same with Rootsey!"

The two Pokemon did so, and eventually, the two Eevee dug out and out of the ground to barley avoid the attacks.

"Now use flare blitz and hydro canon!"

Floatz shot a great beam of water at Rootsey from his mouth, and Flame charged at Cutesy with her flames flaring out of control, making it seem a little too warm for comfort in the room. Before the two Eevee even had a chance to dodge, the attacks landed and sent the two little cuties flying into the wall with spiny eyes.

"Cutesy and Rootsey are unable to battle!"

Kawaii glared at Ryou whilst calling back her Pokemon and sending out her last Eevee, Lootsey.

"Beat those bullies nice and hard for me, will ya Lootsey?"

_I'm on it!_ the Eevee answered with energy to his voice.

Lootsey started dashing around the room, moving so frantically that Ryou couldn't keep up with his movements, and charged right for Floatz.

"Flame, use bounce!"

Just as Lootsey was about to hit Floatz, exhausted from the hyrdo canon, Flame landed right on top of him, hitting him so hard his eyes started to swirl.

"Lootsey is unable to battle! Ryou Hayaku wins the battle against the Grand First!!!"

Ryou cheered as he and Kawaii called back their Pokemon, and Kawaii looked like she was about to cry, making Ryou stop his cheering at look towards her with worry.

"You big meanie!" she mumbled. "If you wa going to beat my Pokemon like dat, you could've at least gone easy on me." She walked up to Ryou as she wiped the tears from her eyes, pulling out a variety of stones from her pockets. "Here," her voice sounded more mature now. "These stones should allow you to evolve any Eevee you have into whatever form you wish. Take these as proof of your victory over me."

Ryou blinked as he accepted the stones.

"Did your voice just change?" he asked.

"Yep." Kawaii replied. "I like to make myself sound like a five year old girl to see if my opponents would underestimate me."

"So you're not five?"

"Nope."

"Then why are you so short?"

"My body wasn't releasing enough growth hormone while I grew up, so I was stuck like this. I don't mind, really. I love the shocked looks on my opponent's faces when I tell them the truth."

"I do have another question, though."

"What is it?"

"Up on the surface, Eevee only come in eight forms."

"Which ones?"

"Eevee, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon, Umbreon, Espeon, Glaceon, and Leafeon. I know how Eevee can evolve into Moleon and Grypheon. How do Eevee change into its other forms?"

"You don't know?"

"Nope."

"Well, Eevee become Limeon(2), their rock type form, if you use a dusk stone on a girl. They become Arachneon(3), their bug type form, if you use a shiny stone on one when it absolutely hates you. They become Maleveon(4), their ghost type form, if you get a girl to hate you. They become Gruleon(5), their poison type form, if you get a boy to hate you. They become Drakeon(6), their dragon type form, when you use a dawn stone on them during the day. They become Ireon(7), their steel type form, when you use a dawn stone on them at night. They become Triceon(8), their fighting type form, when you trade them, and I've heard that Shinju found a new type of Eevee when she exposed one to a strange stone. Anything else?"

"Yes. How do you trade down here?"

"You just touch the button of your Eaveon X to another trainer's button and they're traded."

"Really?"

"Yep. How do you trade?"

"We use these big machines that switch the Pokemon from one end to the other. I don't see much point in them, really. It'd be more efficient just to give the other trainer your Pokemon in the Pokeball in exchange for the one he or she was going to give you."

"Well, I wish you luck in battling the rest of the Grand ones. Farewell."

Suddenly, Ryou and Shinju were outside of the building and facing away from it.

Ryou blinked. "What just happened?"

"I don't know, really," Shinju replied. "Whenever I won, they always said farewell, and I was outside of their building. I'm not sure, but I think Espeon are teleporting me outside whenever that happens."

"Sounds logical. Say, would you mind doing a quick trade with me so that I can get a Triceon?"

"Why would you want to do that?"

"Because I want to see what one looks like!"

"Can't you just look in your Pokedex to do that?"

"I know, but it'd be even better if I had one myself!"

Shinju sighed. "Fine. I'll trade with mine, but you're not keeping it, got it?"

"I wouldn't have wanted yours anyways. That would've been cheating for my next battles!"

Shinju giggled. "Alright, then."

Ryou then let out all of his Eevee to be greeted by a set of yawns.

"Okay, I want to get a Triceon. Do any of you want to be one?"

One of them stepped up towards Ryou. This one had a look to its eyes as if it was wishing for power.

_I would gladly become a fighter for you, owner,_ The Eevee replied with a cool female voice.

Ryou pet her and said, "Thank you! Now back into your X!"

He withdrew her back into her X while Shinju detached and X from her shirt.

"I suppose you're ready, then?" Shinju asked.

"Of course I am!"

"Okay."

She tapped the red buttons on their X's together, and they turned into their ball form. Shinju's green orb and Ryou's orange orb traded places and pulled apart. The orange ball opened up and let Ryou's Eevee out with a white glow. As it glowed, it stood upright on it hind legs, making its forelegs arms. The arms then became huge as if the Eevee had been working out in a gym for years, and the glow subsided. There wasn't much different about the Eevee in its new form as a Triceon except for the fact that it could stand on two legs now, and that its arms were gigantic. She flexed her arms a little, and then punched the ground. It left a small crater, which put a smile on her face.

"Are you pleased, owner?" she asked, using her mouth to form the words now.

Ryou had a gigantic grin on his face and nodded. "You look awesome! Mind if I call you Brute?"

"Not at all. Though, I am currently in Shinju's possession now, in case you've forgotten."

"Oh, right! Can we trade back now?"

Shinju nodded, calling Brute back into her ball. The trade was done once more, and Ryou called back the rest of his Eevee. He called Brute back out and aimed his Pokedex at her.

"Triceon, the Strong Arm Pokemon. As the fighting type evolution of Eevee, it is very proud of its strength, and will take any chance it can to show off its strength for its trainer. Wild Eevee who desire to become Triceon are often found trying to stand on their hind legs while punching rocks with their forelegs. Triceon that have already evolved can be found helping these Eevee obtain their goal of evolution."

Ryou put away his Pokedex and called Brute back into her ball and asked, "How's mine able to speak like that, though?"

"It's probably lived for a long time, and because of that it was able to watch us human communicate the way we do. Eevee are unable to speak in our language with their mouths, so it probably desired to talk like us so much that its newfound strength as a Triceon allowed it to."

"Can yours do that?"

"Yeah. It's only wild Triceon that can't speak our language, though."

"Why?"

"Because being in the wild tells it that it doesn't need to speak like us to get on in life."

"So, where's the next Grand one?"

Shinju smirked. "How about you follow me to find out?"

"O-"

Shinju dashed off into a tunnel at the far end of the city...

"-kay..."

...which left Ryou standing there like an idiot before he realised what she just did. Once he did, though, he ran off after her as quickly as he could.

* * *

(1)Grypheon. Pronounced griff-A(as in the letter)-on. Another Eevee form I made up.

(2)Limeon. Pronounced lime-A-on. Another made up Eevee form.

(3)Arachneon. Pronounced ah-rack-nay-on. I made this one up as well.

(4)Maleveon. Pronounced mah-lev-A-on. Not real.

(5)Gruleon. Pronounced grew-lay-on. Not real either.

(6)Drakeon. Pronounced drack-A-on. Think this one is real? Nope.

(7)Ireon. Pronounced eye-ray-on. Again, not real.

(8)Triceon. Pronounced try-say-on. Again, mine, not Nintendo's.

In case it's not clear, I made all these up! Claim them as yours, and I'll sick them on you. If you need me to clarify the pronunciation more, please let me know, kay?


	6. The Grand Opposites

Disclaimer: The only ideas in this fic that I own are pretty much every character except for Ryou, the Eevee forms I made up, and the whole Eaveon League thing.

Note: PLEASE, if you find any spelling mistakes here at all, even if they're tiny ones, point them out! I don't wanna look stupid with too many spelling errors!

* * *

Once Ryou finally made it into the tunnels he saw Shinju disappear into, he noticed a strange light coming from the distance. He followed it for a long time, twisting and turning through what seemed like a maze of tunnels. Eventually, the light led him into what looked like a den that was brightly lit. Not by the glowing stones, however, but by some unseen source. He looked around, and just as he thought he saw something, the light went out, and another light appeared behind him. As he turned to find the source, he saw a most beautiful sight. It seemed to be what looked like an Eevee made out of light!

_Is this Shinju's strange Pokemon? _Ryou asked himself, following the beautiful creature as it ran off.

Once it stopped, it looked towards Ryou, and he swore he saw a heart-shaped pattern on its forehead just before it glowed red and disappeared. Once it was gone, Ryou could see another city through the end of the tunnel, and he made his way out. Once out, he was greeted by a pair of arms wrapping around him and pinning him face first into the ground and a very familiar giggle.

"You saw her, right?" Shinju's voice inquired.

"Saw who?" Ryou asked, attempting to pry Shinju off of himself.

"Glowy! My mystery Pokemon!"

"You mean that strange Eevee made out of light?"

"Yep!" Shinju giggled, releasing Ryou from her pin. "So what'd you think?"

"..." Ryou couldn't find the words he wished to say.

Shinju blinked. "Are you struck speechless by her beauty? Or is it her uniqueness? Or perhaps something else?"

"I... I think I want one of those..." Ryou mumbled.

Shinju grinned. "I'll be happy to help you with that!"

She searched around in her pockets for a second, and seemed to freak out a little when she couldn't find whatever it was she was searching for.

"What're you looking for?" Ryou asked.

"Remember that stone I showed you back when I first dragged you down here? I thought I left it in my pocket! Where the hell did it go?"

Ryou pulled the small, glowing orb from one of his bag's pockets and asked, "Is this what you're looking for?"

Shinju gasped. "Ye gods, how did you get it?!"

"You dropped it when you ran off for your battle with that one guy. You father almost picked it up, but I took it instead."

Shinju sighed heavily, wiping her forehead. "Holy crap! That would've been disastrous if someone found it!"

"Why?"

"Well, as the first person to own one of those Pokemon, I figure that it's my responsibility to figure out exactly what type it is and what it's weak against, and anything else that might be useful. I didn't want anyone else to have one until I've figured out Glowy's greatest secrets!"

"And yet you're okay with the idea of me having one?"

"Well, you're not from around here, so I figure you having one wouldn't be all _that_ bad. Besides, you might know something about it that I don't."

"Sorry, but as far as the surface world knows, Pokemon like Glowy don't exist."

Shinju hung her head for a moment before snapping up into a cheerful pose. "Oh well! There _are_ some things that I'm not sure about, like if there are any specific conditions for Eevee to evolve into whatever Glowy is, and letting you have one wouldn't hurt much towards that part of it!" She giggled. "So, are you going to make one of your Eevee evolve into whatever Glowy is now, or are you going to wait?"

Ryou thought for a moment.

"I'm not sure, really," he muttered. "It could be risky having one of those too soon... Anyways, where's the next Grand one?"

"I'm not telling," Shinju answered, sticking her tongue out at him while pulling one of her lower eyelids down(1). "You'll just have to figure it out on your own!"

With that, she ran off and out of sight again. Ryou stared off into the distance where he last saw Shinju, taking good notes of the surroundings. He saw a lot of dark buildings around, and as he took a closer look towards the far end of the area, he could see magenta-ish buildings. He could also notice that on the half of the city he was on, there weren't many Pokemon running around, but on the other side, he swore he could see Espeon playing with each other.

_So this next Grand one likes Espeon? _He concluded. _But what about the darker half of the city? Why aren't the Espeon playing around here as well?_

Ryou started walking towards the dark buildings, taking care to study his surroundings. He didn't see much life on the dark half of the city, but where the Espeon frolicked, there was much life and energy to be enjoyed. Just as he was about to reach the edge of the dark half of the city, he saw a light in the corner of his left eye. He looked towards it, and just as he thought he saw the source of light, the light completely faded and left only a dark alley in Ryou's vision.

He decided to check out the alley, so he walked into it, feeling more and more trapped by darkness as he went deeper into it. He did notice something in the corner of his eye a few times, and when he turned his head to look, he could only see some yellow lines and circles. Just as he was about to turn around, Ryou bumped into something. It felt like a hard sheet of glass.

As he looked at what stopped him in his tracks, he could notice some candle light lighting what looked like the inside of a dark building. He swore he could see the patterns of Umbreon on the walls, and maybe even a dark door at the other end. He searched for a way to open the glass door in front of him, and the door glided open with ease. He walked in, the door closing behind him, and made his way towards the back, where he thought he saw a door earlier. Again, he didn't know he was there until he ran into the door, so he felt for the knob and pulled the door open into the next room.

This room was lit with candles as well, but they were more numerous, so it was easier to make out colors and specific details of the room. He saw what looked like a battle arena in front of him, and at the other end were two doors. One was dark and marked by a single, tiny candle above the door, the other was a magenta color, and it was marked by the only artificial light in the whole building, making it seem like it was a doorway into heaven.

"HELLO?" Ryou shouted, cuffing his hands around his mouth. "IS THERE A GRAND ONE IN HERE?"

His voice echoed off of the walls for a moment before he heard a door creak open. It was the dark door in the distance, and it was a man in his twenties who opened it. He had black hair and wore a luxurious black tuxedo. Ryou could barley notice from where he stood that the tie on this tuxedo had a yellow circle pattern. The man was frighteningly pale, and his blood red eyes didn't help much to calm Ryou, either. He wore a short black top hat with a yellow band around it and a red feather sticking out.

"Are you here to challenge me, boy?" a sinister male voice, echoing from the man's mouth, inquired.

"Only if you are a Grand one," Ryou replied.

"Then you've come to the right place."

The man approached the arena's markings, standing in the spot designated for him.

"My name is Yami(2), and I am known as the Grand Second. Any guesses as to what my specialty is?"

"You like Umbreon, don't you?"

"Correct, boy. My Umbreon is the best in this entire city, and I take pride in defeating any challenger who dares to defile his name! I have trained with him in the greatest darknesses around all of Eaveon in order to be the best of my class, and there is no way I'd dare lose to a pathetic trainer like you."

"Pathetic? Excuse me, but I think you're talking to the wrong person. I've beaten the Sinnoh League's Elite Four, and I won with the greatest of ease! And besides, dark-type Pokemon aren't that much of a threat to me. I can beat any Umbreon you throw at me any time of the year!"

"Sinnoh League? You must be that surface dweller Shinju spoke about. No matter, for I shall wipe the floor with you!!! Are you ready to be utterly humiliated?"

"Only if you're ready to lose."

Yami smirked. "I accept your challenge, boy! Go, my faithful companion!"

He threw an X towards the battle field, and what came out was an Umbreon who looked like it was ready to kill at any moment, and the only thing holding it back was it awaiting its owner's command.

"Time to show me what you've got, Brute!" Ryou shouted as he threw his X. His Triceon came out, flexing its muscles and smirking.

"I'll do my best, owner!" she cried cheerfully.

"Let the battle begin!" Shinju's voice echoed, and another artificial light shone on her, and she looked like some sort of angel standing there in the best lit place in the room.

"Umbreon, use dark pulse!"

The Umbreon's eyes glowed ferociously and a dark energy emanated from it, heading right towards Brute. She jumped, being completely unhurt by the attack, and ran towards her opponent at a speed almost too fast for human eyes to follow.

"Sky uppercut, if you can, Brute!"

"Gladly!"

Her fist glowed, and she swung it at her opponent from below, hitting it right on the chin and sending it into the sky.

"Can you use submission?" Ryou asked.

"I shall execute it with magnificence, owner!"

"Use faint attack, Umbreon!"

The dark creature disappeared from sight, alarming Brute for a second. As soon as she was hit, however, she grabbed her opponent and started swinging it around in a circular pattern. Once she let go, the Umbreon was sent into a wall.

"Umbreon, use pursuit!"

"Mach punch, Brute!"

The two Pokemon ran towards each other, and Brute's fists were glowing. Both attacks hit, and the result of the attacks wasn't clear at first. The two Pokemon merely stood in place, staring at their opponent. Yami's Umbreon was clearly near its limits, however, and it soon collapsed from exhaustion with its eyes swirling.

"Yami's Umbreon is unable to battle! The victory goes to Ryou and his Triceon!"

Yami called back his Umbreon with a dark look on his face.

"I apologise for the short battle, but that was my only Pokemon," he stated.

"Does that mean I get my proof for defeating you now?" Ryou asked.

"Not at all. First you must defeat the next Grand one. She will explain once you defeat her."

"Where is she?"

"The lit door back there will take you into her building, but that door is for my use, and my use alone. I wish you luck in your next battle."

With that, he walked off and back into the dark door.

"Nice use of Brute's strength back there!" Shinju cheered, coming towards Ryou as he called Brute back into her X.

"How'd you get there so fast?" Ryou asked.

"Get where?"

"Over there, where that light's shining." He pointed to where she stood as she judged the battle.

"Cause I got here faster than you, silly! I just hid until the battle started. The Grand Third should be in this city as well. I'll see ya when you get there, okay?"

"O-"

She ran off again...

"-kay..." ...leaving Ryou with a frustrated look. He left the building, heading towards the oh-so-warming light that he was used to, and started to search for the next Grand one's building. It didn't take him long, because he ran into an Espeon that lead him to a building with Espeon ears sticking off of the roof. It was pink and black, and the door was clear since it was made out of glass. The first room had an Espeon theme to it, as well as the doors into the next room.

Ryou grabbed the Espeon-shaped knobs and entered the next room, which was another battle arena. This time, it was so well lit that everything seemed brighter than usual. The only dark place in the room was a dark door, just like the one Ryou had seen in Yami's arena. It was only dark because there were walls extending from around the door to block light from touching it from most angles.

Out of the pink door came another individual in her tweinties. She wore nothing but a pink sun dress and a pink sun hat, and her hair was so pink that it made Ryou want to throw up what he had for breakfast. Her eyes were a dark blue color, though, and her skin had a nice tan on it.

"Welcome, challenger!" She called out with a most happy look to her face in a most warming voice as possible. "I am Hikari(3), the Grand Third! I specialise in Espeon, and I will gladly accept a battle with you!" She giggled, sending out an Espeon.

"Alright, then. Go, Floatz!" Ryou called. His Floatzel came out with a triumphant pose as if ready to fight.

"Let the battle begin!" Shinju declared once more, seemingly coming out of nowhere once again.

"Espeon, use psychic!" Hikari commanded.

"Floatz, use pursuit!"

Ryou's Floatzel glowed a blue-ish color and was lifted off the ground, and sent flying into the wall. It merely shook off this weak attack and dashed at its opponent, landing a hit and putting a slight crater in the floor where the Espeon stood. Its eyes were all swirly, and the cute little thing was twitching.

"Espeon is unable to battle! The victory goes to Ryou and his Floatz!"

Hikari called back her Espeon with a sad look on her face.

"It ended that quickly? Oh man, I knew my Espeon's nature was bad for its type!" she muttered.

"Yami said something about asking you about the double battle," Ryou stated with a curious look to his face.

"Ah, yes! You see, Yami and I both only have one Pokemon, and it's been agreed that if the both of us were beaten in a singles battle by the same person, that person has the right to fight the both of us in a double battle! The only condition about that, though, is that you have to wait for another challenger to beat the both of us before you can have fun with the double battle."

"Why's that?"

"Well, the people who made the rules said that if one partakes in a double battle against two trainers, that person must have a partner so that the experience of working with another person is the exact same for the Grand ones that shall be battled against. Ya clear on the rules?"

Ryou blinked. "Say that again?"

"Alright, I'll make it simpler. Since me and Yami are two people, you, who are a single person, cannot partake in a double battle with us unless you can find another challenger to battle with you and against us. Is that better?"

"...The way you worded it was weird, but I get the point. Until another person beats the two of you and becomes eligible to fight you in a double battle, I cannot battle you two without that partner."

"Correct! Now have a good night's rest, and I'll have Shinju call you when we've gotcha a battle partner, okay?"

"Sure."

Ryou called back his Floatzel and left the building to go find a place to stay for the night.

* * *

(1)This is a Japanese gesture. I'm not sure what it means exactly, but it's used by children, and I do understand when they'd use it.

(2)Yami-pronounced yah-me. It means darkness in Japanese.

(3)Hikari-pronounced he-car-ee. It means light in Japanese.

Two Grand ones down, another double battle to go! Who will be Ryou's double battle partner? Tune in for part seven to find out!


	7. Twin Grands and Drakeon

Disclaimer: The red headed trainer appearing today is not mine. He's Nintendo's.

Note: If you haven't played Pokemon Gold, Silver, or Crystal for whatever reason, just type "Pokemon silver rival" in an image search and I'm sure you'll find a pic of him.

* * *

Just as Ryou had gotten up and had breakfast that morning, he was greeted by yet another one of Shinju's glomps(1).

"Good news, Ryou-kun!" she declared with a smile. "Someone beat Yami-san(2) and Hikari-chan yesterday right after you did! And he says he'll meet you in Hikari-chan's building, okay?"

"What does he look like?" Ryou asked.

"He's got red hair, and he wears this strange black jacket. He doesn't look like he's a friendly guy, though. I'd be careful in your battle if I were you."

"Whatever. Now will you get offa me already!?!"

Shinju giggled, releasing Ryou from her grasp.

"Whoops! My bad!"

"Did you get his name?"

"Ummm... I dunno. I wasn't really paying attention. Wanna race to Hikari-chan's building?"

"Su-"

...And Shinju dashed off yet again.

"-re..." _I didn't even get to finish a single-syllabled word this time!!!_

And Ryou dashed off after her.

* * *

When he got to Hikari's building, though, she wasn't there. Instead, there was a red-headed boy around his age standing just outside the door. He matched Shinju's description perfectly.

"Are you going to be my partner today?" he asked with a slight glare in his eye.

"Yeah. I'm Ryou. What's your name?"

"It's Shinji. Now are we going to go in or what?"

"After you."

They both walked into Hikari's building and into the battle area.

"Good morning, you two!" Hikari greeted cheerfully. "My brother's not much of a morning person, so could you guys give him a moment before we begin?"

"Whatever," Shinji muttered, glaring at the ground.

"Okay," Ryou replied.

It took forever for Yami to come through the black door in the back. During the wait, Ryou decided to count how many stripes were on his shirt while Shinji just glared at the ground some more. After Ryou finished counting his stripes, he started counting random things he could find in the room. It took until the underground equivalent of noon for Yami to come out, and once he did, his half of the field just darkened, as if he carried some curse of darkness everywhere he went.

"The double battle between the Grand Twins Yami and Hikari and the two challengers, Ryou and Shinji, shall now commence!" Shinju declared.

Shinji called out an Umbreon he nicknamed Ursula, and Ryou decided to call out Brute to help cover the fact that Ursula's dark-type moves wouldn't hurt Yami's Umbreon much. Once the Grand ones in front of them called out their Pokemon, Ryou had realised something he forgot to realise when he called Brute out.

_This'll be quite the interesting match up,_ he thought. _Even though Brute's good against Yami's Umbreon, if Shinji's Umbreon doesn't cover for her, she could be in big trouble from that Espeon's attacks..._

"Umbreon, use faint attack on the enemy's Umbreon!" Yami ordered.

"Espeon, use psychic on that Triceon!" Hikari called.

The two Pokemon obeyed, with the Umbreon disappearing, and the Espeon glowing.

"Brute, use seismic toss to take care of that Umbreon!" Ryou ordered.

Brute nodded and took its stance near Shinji's Ursula.

"Ursula, use dark pulse on that Epseon before it can attack Brute!" Shinji ordered.

Ursula sent out its attack at a lightning pace, hitting the Espeon and halting its efforts to lift Brute with its mind, while Brute grabbed Yami's Umbreon and tossed it around.

"Ursula, use faint attack while that Espeon's guard is down!"

"Brute, use mach punch!"

Both attacks hit their intended target, and both attacks sent the enemy Pokemon flying, causing them to hit the walls with swirly eyes.

"The Grand Twins' Pokemon are unable to battle! Shinji and Ryou take the victory!"

Everyone called back their Pokemon, and the two Grand ones approached Ryou and Shinji.

"The way you two battled together is more beautiful than words can describe," Yami said, bowing artistically. "You were able to beat the two of us in record time! I am proud to have been defeated by you two, and I apologise for my being late."

"It's no big deal," Ryou said. "At least we got the battle."

"You two were so tough!" Hikari said with a slight frown. "I'm going to have to take better care of my Espeon if I'm going to have any luck against trainers like you in the future! Well done."

The two of them pulled something out of their pockets and held their hands towards Ryou and Shinji.

"As proof of your victory over us," Yami started.

"We present the two of you with these seals." Hikari finished.

"The seal of darkness,"

"And the seal of the mind."

"Take them, and be proud of your victory," the two of them said together.

Ryou and Shinji took both of the seals. Yami's seal was in the shape of a cresent moon, while Hikari's was that of a bent spoon. Ryou put his seals in his bag, while Shinji put his in one of his jacket's pockets.

"One last tidbit before we say goodbye," Hikari said, holding up her index finger towards the air.

"In case you haven't figured it out by now, the two of us are twins, I being the elder of the two," Yami explained.

Ryou blinked and looked back and for the between the two of them.

"But you look nothing alike!!!" Ryou exclaimed.

"You mean you didn't figure it out when that girl called them the Grand Twins?" Shinji asked, looking at Ryou with his usual glare.

"She said that?"

Shinji shook his head.

"I guess that's our farewell, then," the twins said, with Yami bowing and Hikari giving them a curtsey.

Ryou, Shinji, and Shinju were now outside of the building. Shinji cast another glare towards Ryou.

"Are you from the surface world?" he asked Ryou.

"Um, yeah. Why?"

"Your skin is more tan than everyone else's. What League did you participate in?"

"The Sinnoh League. I even made it to being Champion a few times."

"A few? What do you mean?"

"Well, after the first time, I was defeated by this awesome trainer named Cynthia. I beat her, then I was defeated by my cousin Lucas. I beat him, but then my rival Dawn beat me, and I haven't been able to beat her back since. What League are you from?"

"I first took place in the Johto League. I beat the Elite Four, but I couldn't beat the Champion."

"Who's the Champion there?"

"This annoying girl named Kris. She reported me for stealing one of Professor Elm's Pokemon, and we've been in an annoying rivalry since then. I ended up exploring around the country, and I tried the Kanto League. Same story there, excpet the Champion this time was some strange boy(3) who seemed to be in some kind of relationship with Kris. I then tried the Hoenn League, but it was the same story there, too. I was beaten by some boy with white hair(4)."

"How'd you find your way underground here, then, if you're from the surface?" Shinju asked.

"I was just about to challenge the Gym leader in Oreburg City when I fell into this hole that came out of nowhere. I heard some voices coming from this gigantic hole in the ground, so I jumped in and found myself down here. Some guy named Roger acquainted me with the rules of this place and sent me off to battle the Grand ones. I'm only doing it because I want to fight the best trainer down here and win."

_Has he been following me?_ Ryou thought to himself.

"Well, if you wanna fight the best trainer in Eaveon, you're going to have to take a number, pal," Shinju announced, "Cause Ryou-kun here's going to fight me first."

She slapped her hand over her mouth after she said that last sentence, making Shinji cast his glare towards her.

"_You're_ the best?" Shinji asked. "Then why are you refereeing our matches?"

"Because I feel like it. It gives me something to do while I wait for the next challenger to my title, and I get to see what the challenger'll fight like."

"That sounds like you're cheating to me."

"I'm not cheating, Mr. I-have-something-perpetually-stuck-up-my-ass!!! It's never the fact that I watched my opponents that helps me win! It's always the fact that no one has been able to find a weakness to my mystery Pokemon yet!!!"

"Mystery Pokemon? How?"

"Whad'ya mean, how? It's mysterious because no one has ever seen it before!!! And as the first person to own one, I find it's my duty to find everything out about Glowy that I possibly can!!!" Shinju pouted, crossing her arms.

She blinked when she noticed something, or someone, was missing.

"RYOU-KUN, WAIT FOR ME!!!" she shouted, running after him as he neared the tunnels that lead into the next city, leaving Shinji to shake his head.

* * *

Once she finally caught up with him in the tunnels, she smacked Ryou in the back of his head.

"What the hell did you run off for?" she demanded.

"Sorry," Ryou apologised, his mind apparently in another place. "I saw something over here and I wanted to check it out."

"Whad'ya mean?"

"Well, there's been this strange light kinda guiding me since the tunnels that led to that last city, and I wanna find out where it's coming from."

"Strange light?"

"Yeah. In the tunnels that lead to the last city, I followed a light into this section of the cave. It disappeared, and then I saw the light of Glowy. It saw the light again while looking for Yami's building. It appeared just out of the corner of my eye, so it drew my attention to the alley where Yami's building was. The last time I saw it was while we were talking with Shinji. It was coming from these tunnels this time. Every time I think I see the source, though, the light disappears and I find myself where I was trying to get to."

"What color is this light?"

"Hm? A gray-ish color, I think."

"That's odd."

"Why?"

"I've seen that light, too. I thought it was just my mind, but now that you say you've seen it too, I think it just might be something."

"Like what?"

"Maybe something like what Glowy is. Another mystery type Pokemon."

"Think it might be the same one?"

"I dunno. What shade of grey was your light?"

"It was dark."

"Well, then it's not the same. My light was a light shade. This could mean something, though. Perhaps there's a civilization filled with these strange Pokemon that no man has ever stumbled upon before! Or maybe only people our age can see them! Or maybe-"

"What _is _this place?"

"Huh?"

"What's this city? It looks all... weird..."

Shinju took a good look at the city they were now in. It seemed like an ancient civilation took residence here, and the Pokemon wandering around seemed too mystical to be real.

Shinju giggled. "This is just the city where the Grand Fourth is, Ryou-kun."

"What's with all these creatures?" Ryou pointed at all the dragon-like creatures flying about.

"Those are Drakeon. Use your Pokedex and see what they're like."

Ryou did so, making pictures of the two kinds of Drakeon appear on the screen.

"Drakeon, the Mighty Dragon Pokemon," his pokedex started. "As the dragon-type evolution of Eevee, these mighty creatures are famous in fairy tales involving princes, princesses, fairies, knights, and magic. The females are the long, snake-like ones, and their beauty can only be compared with that of Glaceon and the mystery form of Eevee. They're quite the exceptional flyers, and would do anything to protect their young. The males, which are too large to be able to fly, have such brute strength that it can only be compared with the strongest of Triceon. They use this strength to win quarrels over territory and females. It is quite unpleasant if you are ever stepped on by one of them."

"Gee, ya think?" Ryou muttered, staring at the different Drakeon as he put his Pokedex away. "These guys are awesome! How do you get one again?"

"You use a dawn stone on an Eevee during the day. Are you going to make one of your Pokemon evolve into one of them?"

"You bet I am!"

Ryou called out his Eevee, not including Brute, with a large grin on his face.

"Any one of you guys wanna become a Drakeon?" he asked, pointing towards the different kinds. Most of his Eevee shivered, going back into their X's at the sight of them. Only two remained outside of their X's. One of them was Speedy, and the other one had messy fur all over. Speedy merely shook his head.

_Those Drakeon _do _look powerful, but I don't think I want to be one,_ he responded.

"What about you, then?" Ryou asked the messy Eevee.

It looked at the Drakeon, and back at Ryou a few times.

_You want me to become one of those?_ It asked in a slightly nervous little boy's voice.

"Only if you want to,"

_I won't mind._

"Then why are you nervous?"

_I'm just worried that my friends will be afraid of me, is all._

_If they do end up afraid,_ Speedy commented, _I'll be sure to reason with them until they get it through their heads that you're not going to eat them._

_Alright. I think I'm ready now, Owner._

"Why do you all call me 'Owner'?"

_Because that is who you are to us, _Speedy replied. _If you prefer for us to call you by your name, I'm sure we'll do so eventually once we respect you enough._

"Does that mean you don't respect me?"

_Not at all. I just don't feel like calling you by your name yet._

Ryou shook his head and called Speedy back into his ball, then he pulled out a dawn stone that Kawaii had given him.

"Catch!"

Ryou tossed the stone towards his messy Eevee, and the moment it hit his head, he started to glow. The stone disappeared, and the Eevee started growing bigger. It grew so big that Ryou wondered if it'd fit inside a Grand one's building. Wings grew out of its back, and its eyes were now cat-like, having an iris and a vertical slit for a pupil instead of the usual dot. Its fur was replaced with gorgeous tan scales, and its teeth grew into sharp fangs. Its tail now lay on the ground, and it grew claws so sharp that they could cut through steel. It was clear now that this Eevee, now a Drakeon, was a boy, and Ryou whistled at his new Pokemon's form.

"You look awesome!!!" Ryou exclaimed, hugging his leg. "I'm gunna call you Stompz, kay?"

Stompz nodded, and Ryou called it back into its X. Shinju giggled.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing. It's just neat how I have a female Drakeon and you have a male. Wanna race to the Grand Fourth's place?"

Ryou merely smirked and ran off at the same moment Shinju took off.

_Finally!_ Ryou thought as they ran. _I'm not left eating her dust!_

* * *

(1)If you're wondering what a glomp is, it's basically those times when I say that Ryou was greeted by "that familiar pair of arms wrapped around him." If you still don't get it, look it up somewhere.

(2)-san. This is another Japanese suffix. It can apply to anyone.

(3)The strange boy mentioned here is the Crystal version's male hero, or who you look like if you choose to be a boy if you ever played this game.

(4)This is the boy you ended up looking like in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald(?) if you chose to be a boy, or your rival if you chose to be a girl. I'm not sure about in Emerald, though. I never played it.

Next time'll be the Grand Fourth, kay?


	8. The Grand Pervert

Disclaimer: If you haven't heard of the Pokemon/character before this fic came to be, it's mine. Some characters are just rivals from previous games that I gave names to. Other than that, NOTHING ISH MINE!!!

Note: I've gotten some pics up of the various Eevee evolutions I made up on deviantART. Most of them are rough sketches, but they should give you guys an idea of what I think of when I imagine them. If ya wanna look, there's a link to them on my page.

* * *

When the two of them finished dashing, Ryou found himself in front of a building with dragon wings coming off of it. The building had a tan and white theme to it, and the two wings had these colors as well. Upon entering the building, he noticed the various Drakeon designs on the walls, floor, ceiling, and even a few statues here and there. When he opened the doors into the arena, he noticed that his side of the field was very, _very_ scorched, as if someone went mad with a flamethrower.

Shinju took her place as the referee and shouted, "OI(1), DANIEL!!!! YOU GOT ANOTHER CHALLENGER!!!"

Her words echoed off of the walls for a second before someone came out of the door on the other side. He was a tall man with a dominant look just radiating from his presence. His elegant robes, of graceful tan and white colors, slid along the ground behind him, and his tan hair was so well groomed that it made him seem slightly vain. His eyes were a draconian yellow color, and his skin was just as pale as any other Eaveon resident.

Ryou was about to grab one of his X's as this man approached his side of the field, but was thrown off the moment he made a turn towards Shinju. Once at her side, he had one arm wrapped around her delicate waist, and his free hand was gently holding her chin to make her look towards him. There was this look in his eye that seemed to be a mix of lust and passion.

"Ah, Shinju, my sweet," he began, a gentle smile gracing his face. "I see you have returned to me. Tell me, have you decided to take up my offer yet?"

Shinju's eyes were twitching as she angrily replied, "No. How many times do I have to get it through your thick head that I'm not interested in you?"

"An infinite amount of times, I'm afraid, for my love towards you shall never fade!!!"

Shinju was starting to try and push him off, but his hold on her remained firm.

_Why is this pissing me off so much?_ Ryou thought to himself. He took a deep breath and shouted, "HEY, YOU IDIOT!!! I'M YOUR NEXT CHALLENGER, NOT HER!!!"

Daniel was taken off guard for a moment, taking a glance towards the source of Ryou's voice, which gave Shinju an opportunity to break free. She did so by kneeing him in a place no man would like to be kneed, and then kicked him in the gut so hard that he was sent flying to his place on the field.

She then faced Ryou with a smile and said, "Arigatou gozaimasu(2), Ryou-kun!"

"Nandemo nee(3)," Ryou replied.

Daniel, once he had time to recover, got up and brushed his robes off, then cast a slight glare towards Ryou.

"Forgive me for not noticing you before," he apologised calmly. "I was merely distracted by dear Shinju's beauty. Now, I suppose you wish for a battle?"

"What else could I be here for?" Ryou asked.

"I see. Now please, pick your Pokemon. I wish to get this battle over with as soon as possible."

"Fine by me. Go, Stompz!!!"

"I summon you into battle, my fierce Macbeth."

Macbeth was a male Drakeon, and it seemed twice as big as Stompz was. The look to its eye was that of a murderous intent, which sent shivers down Stompz's body. Stompz returned the look, sending shivers down his opponent's body in return.

"Stompz, can you do a dragon dance?"

_Sure thing, owner!_

Stompz started stomping around as if doing a ritualistic dance of some sorts.

Daniel smirked as he commanded, "Macbeth, use draco storm, if you will."

His Drakeon roared, and somehow clouds started appearing near the ceiling. They were a mix of black, purple, and yellow colors, and for some reason, Shinju seemed worried.

"Now use dragon pulse, Stompz!"

Ryou's Drakeon obeyed, opening its mouth and sending a blast of purple energy towards his opponent.

Daniel's smirk grew wider as he commanded, "Now use draco beam, Macbeth!"

His Drakeon opened its mouth as well, and a purple orb appeared. From it erupted a beam of swirling purple and yellow light, which collided with Stompz's dragon pulse right between the two of them! The two attacks seemed evenly matched, but then thunder and lightning started to strike down from the clouds that appeared when Macbeth was commanded to use draco storm. About twenty lightning bolts hit Macbeth, and suddenly its attack overpowered Stompz's dragon pulse and sent him flying into the wall behind Ryou, putting a pair of swirly eyes on its face.

"Stompz is unable to battle," Shinju announced with a worried look on her face. "The round goes to Macbeth!"

Daniel's smirk grew even wider as Ryou called back Stompz.

"I do hope you liked that attack combination," he started. "It's quite fierce, and barely anyone has figured out how to get around Macbeth's power once it's been done."

Ryou cast a glare towards his opponent and called out his Floatzel next. Just as he was about to call an attack, however, Daniel commanded his Drakeon to use draco beam once more, and it sent Ryou's Floatzel into the wall again.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Daniel taunted, waving his index finger back and forth. "You aren't going to defeat me like that. You better give quicker commands next time."

Ryou called out his Torterra, but unfortunately, it was defeated just as quickly as his Floatzel. This repeated for his Staraptor, who he nicknamed Flaps, his Snorlax, named Snorey, Flame, Brute, and his Heracross, Buggy. The last two had caught the attack, but in the struggle to throw it off, more lightning had hit Macbeth and the attack overpowered them.

"I hope you can do better than that, kid!" Daniel called out as Ryou summoned one of his Eevee.

When Macbeth shot another draco beam at it, Ryou told it to dodge by digging. When it came out, however, Mabeth shot an amazingly fast draco beam at it, making its eyes swirly. As Ryou called out another Eevee, he had it dig to doge as well, but he told them not to come out. Daniel worked around this by just aiming a draco beam at the beginning of its tunnel, and it was sent flying out of the ground with swirly eyes. Ryou tried many techniques to dodge the powerful draco beams, but each of them failed miserably. Now he was only left with Speedy, and his chances of winning the match seemed slim to none.

_What am I going to do?_ Ryou thought. _This stupid draco beam attack just keeps getting more and more powerful every time that storm hits Daniel's Drakeon with a lightning bolt! Speedy can't do anything to get rid of the weather, but he _is _pretty fast. I sure hope he can dodge the beam in time..._

Without warning, Macbeth shot another draco beam at Speedy. Ryou barley had time to even think of a command as the beam steadily approached Speedy, but he didn't have to. The little fella was able to dodge with plenty of room between him and the beam. While the beam was still scorching the ground, he took a deep breath, and when he exhaled, a glorious beam of light shot out of its mouth. Apparently it was very powerful, because Speedy was being pushed backwards, leaving a slight trail in front of him where he used to stand.

The attack missed Macbeth horribly, though. Instead, it hit the ceiling and shot right through the clouds, exposing a few lights. Shinju's face brightened up the moment this happened, and Daniel's started to look like a mixture of confusion and anger.

"Speedy, use that attack again on that Drakeon!" Ryou commanded.

He nodded, sending another attack towards the gigantic brute that was his opponent. It hit him right on his neck, and apparently the blast was strong enough to knock him onto his side. His eyes were now swirly, and Shinju happily declared the win to be Speedy's. Daniel called back his Pokemon with a glare and sent out a female Drakeon this time. It was long and snakelike, and its scales were a gorgeous white color. Its eyes were blue with slits for pupils, and its arms and legs looked like twigs compared to the rest of its body. Its wings were large and had a very wide span, and each flap caused a breeze to flow throughout the room.

"Use hyper beam, my graceful Charity!"

It shot a beam out of its mouth, which Speedy dodged with ease, and was left exhausted for a moment. Speedy took his chance and shot another beam of light at its opponent, sending it into the ceiling with swirly eyes. Again, the victory was declared for Speedy, and Daniel swapped out Charity for another male Drakeon. It attacked, Speedy dodged, and he shot another light beam attack towards its opponent, giving another victory for Ryou. The cycle repeated with three more Drakeon, their genders alternating, until finally Ryou had a solid victory over Daniel. Daniel glared as he called back his last Drakeon, while Ryou was happily giving Speedy a hug, picking him up off of the ground with a wide grin on his face.

"I don't know how your Eevee managed to do that," Daniel said, casting his glare at Ryou, "but your next victory won't be quite so easy. I promise."

He walked back into the room in the back, slamming the door shut so hard that it shook the place.

"You did a great job, Speedy," Ryou said, looking down at his little partner. "We should work on that attack of yours so that it doesn't push you back any, okay?"

Speedy nodded and closed his eyes. It was soon apparent that he fell asleep. Ryou smiled and called him back into his X, and was then greeted by Shinju's arms wrapping around him, pinning him to the ground.

"That was awesome, Ryou-kun!" she shouted happily. "How'd Speedy learn to do a holy beam so well?"

"A what?"

"A holy beam! You know, that attack it used to kick Daniel's ass?"

"I don't know. He just said he had an attack that he didn't know the name of. I suppose he used it to try it out. It was great that that attack won me the battle, though!"

Shinju released her pin on Ryou and suddenly had a serious look to her face.

"It's a good move and all, but did you see the way it pushed him back a little?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I think that attack is a little too powerful for Speedy at this moment. I think if you evolved it into whatever Glowy is right now, it'd have an easier time with the attack. I've never seen Glowy get pushed back by that attack."

Ryou thought for a moment before replying.

"Okay. It might be worth a shot, but I'll wait for him to rest up a bit first. In the meantime, I'll see if I can teach Stompz those moves that nearly kicked my ass today."

"That'd be a good idea. I'll go rent us a place to stay for the night, okay?"

"Sure."

* * *

About an hour later, Shinji walked into the arena and called out for Daniel. Once he was out and on his side of the arena, Shinju rushed in and started the battle. Shinji sent out a Weavile, and Daniel sent out Charity. Shinji's Weavile wiped the floor clean with the Drakeon, giving him the round. As the battle progressed, Shinji won the matches more and more easily with his Weavile's ice-type moves, and eventually he won the whole match.

As Daniel left the room, Shinji looked towards Shinju and asked, "Was that Ryou guy here earlier?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Did he win?"

"Of course he did!"

Shinji glared, leaving the building with an angry aura behind him.

* * *

Another hour later, Ryou left the house Shinju rented for them with a serious look to his face.

_Alright, let's review my training so far,_ he thought. _I got Stompz to do that draco storm thing fine after asking a wild Drakeon to help, and he can barley do that draco beam attack. I'm going to have to ask another Drakeon for help, but Stompz is really exhausted. I suppose I should wait for Shinju to get back so that I can ask her to help me train Speedy once I evolve it. But where is she?_

He wandered around the city for a while, letting Speedy out so that he could walk with him, searching for Shinju. They wandered past another one of those purple and green buildings, and even what looked like the underground equivalent of a Pokemon Center and a Pokemart. The Center's roof was orange, and the market's roof was black. They wove around the city for an hour or so before they noticed Daniel cradling a woman in his arms while other women were squealing at his actions.

_Idiotic pervert,_ Ryou thought to himself. _At least that explains what he was doing to Shinju earlier. I just hope I never meet another person like that again._

Just as he was about to walk away, he noticed that Shinju happened to wander by Daniel and his band of groupies while happily feasting on an ice cream cone. Daniel noticed her as he was busy flattering some other woman, and dropped the poor lady on the ground. He made his way towards her, blocking her path, and grabbed her by the waist again.

"My dear, sweet Shinju," he started, giving her a look like the one from before, "It it very fortunate that we crossed paths yet again, for I have a question for you."

"This better be important," Shinju muttered angrily. "My ice cream will melt soon, and if I find out that you're wasting my time, I'll kick your ass."

"Oh, but that would be fine either way, my dear Shinju! The only thing that could possibly compare to your beauty is the one of your elegant Briikt(4)! It would be like staring at a couple of siblings!"

"Hurry up, you idiot."

"Yes, yes, of course. My question is, just what is your relationship with that blonde boy who owned that remarkable Eevee, hm?"

"What the hell kind of question is that!?!"

"I see you did not deny that the two of you were in a relationship. Tell me, how close are the two of you, hm?"

Shinju got an anime vien. "Look, Daniel. The two of us are just friends, alright? Now let go of me before I knee you again."

"Oh, but I suspect that there is more to your story than you let on! I saw that joyous look on your face when his Eevee dispersed my Macbeth's draco storm. Tell me, why is that?"

"I was just worried for him because you were kicking his ass, you idiot!"

"And why should you be? He's going to challenge you to a fight sooner or later. Why not wait until later, hm?"

"Because sometimes it's more fun when the challengers come at me like there's no tomorrow, you dolt!!!"

Shinju moved an arm to start pushing him off, but she stopped when she noticed her ice cream was melting. This put a very pissed look on her face, especially when Daniel knocked it out of her hands and onto the ground, grabbing her chin once more so that the two of them were facing each other again.

"I shall not allow such a boy to take you from me, my dear, sweet-"

He would've finished his sentence, but Speedy had made a dash at him using extremespeed. This caught him off guard, giving Shinju plenty of time to knee him again and run off towards Ryou.

"What the hell was that about?" Ryou asked once Speedy caught up with the two of them.

"Ugh," Shinju grunted. "That stupid dolt keeps hitting on me every time we meet. I swear, if he doesn't stop soon I'll have to neuter him."

Ryou laughed for a moment, then asked, "Why _does_ he hit on you, anyways?"

"I don't know. When I first battled him, I decided to use my Drakeon, which was female and given the name Briikt. The moves I had her use during the battle were very beautiful, and when I won, that idiot declared his love for me, and I rejected him. The stupid dolt's been hitting on me every time since then, and it's getting very annoying."

"I suppose it would."

There was a slight silence as they walked back to the house, which had an angel theme to it this time, minus the grumbling Shinju was doing about her ice cream. Once they were inside, they went into the hallway that lead to their bedrooms. Before either of them had opened their doors, Shinju made some strange nose that sounded like she was calling out to Ryou.

"Yes?" he asked.

"W-Would you mind doing something for me while we're in this city?"

"What?"

"W-Well, this is the only thing I can think of to get that annoying dolt off my back, but..."

"What is it?"

"Would you mind if, when the next time he hits on me, I cling to you in a hug?"

Ryou went red and started coughing for no apparent reason.

"Is that a yes?"

"What the hell kind of question is that!?!"

"One that I'd only ask if I trusted you with my heart and soul."

Ryou looked away for a second before answering.

"S-Sure, I guess..."

"Yay! Thank you!"

She happily trotted off into her room, humming some cheery tune.

_I better not have gotten myself into something weird by answering yes to her..._ Ryou thought as he entered his room.

* * *

Oi--Japanese for "Hey!"

Arigatou gozaimasu—Japanese for "Thank you very much." Thank you is Arigatou.

Nandemo nee—It's really nademo nai. This is Japanese for, "It's nothing", like a response to thank you. I'm not sure if it can be used in other situations yet. The "nee" thing is only because Ryou was saying it. See, for certain double vowel sounds, like "ai", boys tend to replace it with "ee", pronounced like an "eh" extended for a beat longer.

Briikt-pronounced breek-t. If you say it right, the "t" sound shouldn't be too noticeable, but you'll hear it.

I hope I earned the rating today. Gotta go now. Bye!


	9. Speedy's Grand Frenzy

Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING!!!

Note: Sorry it took a bit to update. I was working on something, but stupid DA won't let me submit it. Keep getting the same window over and over again.

* * *

As soon as they awoke from their slumber, Shinju and Ryou were on their way to a nice place to train. Shinju, however, made a turn somewhere and got separated from Ryou. He didn't notice this until he got to his training spot.

_Wasn't she behind me just a second ago?_ He thought to himself.

He decided to forget about it for a bit and worked on training his Drakeon.

* * *

As soon as Ryou called Stompz back into his X, Shinju had returned.

"Where were you?" Ryou asked.

"Ih? Sorry. I saw Shinji walking into Daniel's building, so I figured he was there for his double battle," Shinju replied.

"How'd he do?"

"He won as if Daniel were a n00b trainer. He used this black Pokemon he called Weavile, and this one white Pokemon he called Froslass. They were great ice-type Pokemon. Their ice shard and blizzard attacks were amazing!"

Ryou thought for a moment, closing his eyes while tilting his head to the side and up.

"What kind of Pokemon are Weavile and Froslass anyways?" Shijnu asked, breaking Ryou's trance.

"They're both ice-type Pokemon, but Weavile is also a dark-type, and Froslass is also a ghost-type. My friend Dawn has a Weavile she calls Ici. It's such a strong Weavile, though. It beat my Torterra in a single move."

"Torterra...?"

"Shellstomp."

"Oh."

"Can we get to training Speedy now?"

"Oh, sure. But wouldn't it be a good idea to call him out first?"

"I was going to do that."

Ryou called Speedy out, and he appeared with a curious look to his face.

_What is it, owner?_ He asked.

Ryou pulled out the white orb and said, "Let's play catch!"

Speedy tilted his head to the side in a questioning manner, but shrugged it off. Ryou threw the orb and Speedy chased after it like a bullet. The moment he caught it, both he and the orb started glowing so brightly that Ryou and Shinju had to shield their eyes. When the glow dulled down a bit, it was difficult to tell that the glow had stopped at all. Ryou marveled at Speedy's new form. Various colors of light were swirling together in a beautiful display, occasionally joining together to form white. He kept his tufts of hair through the evolution, but in this form they might as well have been cute little feathery wings. His eyes sparkled with a brilliance incomparable to any other, and his whole presence just seemed to lighten Ryou's heart of all his troubles. He nearly forgot that he was here to train, and he would have if Shinju didn't call out Glowy.

"Glowy, show Speedy there your holy beam." Shinju said.

She nodded and took a deep breath. Upon exhaling, she released a beam of glorious light like Speedy did before, but instead of being pushed back, she was able to hold her head up high without even blinking.

"Now have Speedy do one, Ryou."

"Okay. You heard her Speedy."

He repeated the move exactly as Glowy did it.

"That's great! I knew evolving him would stop that attack from pushing him back!" Shinju declared happily.

"How?"

"I was just guessing, but I think that if a Pokemon doesn't have the same type as that move, it'll be pushed back from using such high amounts of energy, and therefore be exhausted after repeated and or elongated use."

"Okay. You mentioned Glowy had other moves of that type?"

"Oh, right. Glowy, do that pulse thingy."

She nodded and the colors on her body started swirling at a fast rate. She glowed brighter for a simple second, then released a pulse of light that radiated throughout the area, calming Ryou's nerves down to a state that was like being high on the emotion of happiness. Speedy absorbed the part of it that hit him, and any part that missed Shinju and Ryou hit either a building or a wall, which put a slight dent in the object.

Once Ryou snapped out of his trance, he asked, "Speedy, could you try that move?"

He nodded and tried it. It ended up doing the same thing as Glowy's did, except it didn't deepen the dent in the buildings and walls.

"What's that move called?" Ryou asked.

Shinju shrugged. "I don't know. It's some kind of pulse move, though. Like water pulse and dark pulse. There's one last move I'll help Speedy learn, and it's a fang kind of move. Glowy, could you use that one?"

She nodded and looked around. After assessing the area, she turned towards Speedy and bit his tail. Her teeth glowed almost as brightly as she was as she dug her teeth into Speedy, but he didn't seem fazed by the attack. He merely returned the bite, with his teeth glowing like Glowy's were. They took a good look at each other as they were biting for nearly a minute. This put a confused look on Ryou's face, and Shinju's seemed to get some color to it. She called back Glowy with this strange stare on her face.

"What is it?" Ryou asked.

"Nothing," Shinju replied, putting the X on the inside of her jacket. "Let's go and get that double battle with Daniel over with, okay?"

"Right."

Ryou called back Speedy and followed as Shinju trotted off towards the dreaded pervert's building.

* * *

And apparently, he was awaiting this double battle. He was standing outside of his building with an angry look to his face while tapping his foot on the ground.

"It's about time you came," he said, casting a glare towards Ryou.

He grabbed Ryou's green scarf and dragged him into the building and into the battle arena. He would've been pulling so hard that he was choking Ryou had Shinju not put her hand between the scarf and Ryou's neck. Once Daniel let go, he walked off to his side of the arena, and Shinju took her place as the ref.

"I have a deal I would like to make before we begin, brat," he said, keeping a glare focused on Ryou.

"What kind of deal?" Ryou asked.

"Whoever wins this battle shall have the honor of taking dear Shinju out on a date."

Shinju went red... well, pink, considering her normal skin tone, and started coughing for no apparent reason.

"WHAT THE HELL KIND OF DEAL IS THAT!?!" Ryou shouted at the top of his lungs.

"I shall not agree to do battle unless you agree to these terms."

"Who the hell do you think you are? You can't just make deals like that without consulting her first! She's not some trophy to be won in a contest, you know!!!"

Daniel's glare hardened at Ryou's outburst, while Shinju was casting a curious look towards him, her pink gently growing deeper into red. She moved her hand so that the tips of her fingers were covering her mouth and turned to look away from the two men in front of her.

"I-I won't mind," she mumbled, just barley audible. "J-Just hurry up and start the battle, please."

"Glad you agree, my dear Shinju!" Daniel said with a warm smile, pulling two X's out of his robes. "Now call out your Pokemon, boy, and we'll see how much you've improved since last time."

"Gladly. Go, Stompz! Speedy, time to show him what you've got!"

Daniel stared at Speedy for a moment before he spoke again, "Whatever it is you've done to that Eevee of yours won't matter. I'm sure he'll have rotten luck in this battle since I'll be using two Pokemon at a time now. Now go, Macbeth! Redeem yourself from your shameful loss yesterday! As well as you, my graceful Charity!"

Daniel's Drakeon came out with a glare to their faces, casting shivers down Stompz's spine, which he returned. Speedy seemed barley phased by it, as if a drop of rain fell on him while he was underwater.

"Let the double battle begin!" Shinju declared with her voice getting louder. She also turned to face the battle, though her face was still colored like a pinkish red rose.

"Macbeth, use draco storm! Charity, use dragon dance!"

"Stompz, use dragon dance as well! Speedy, use bright fang!"

The Pokemon did as they were told without hesitation. Charity was dancing around in the air as if she were a gymnastics ribbon, and Macbeth sent a roar echoing throughout the room, causing the black, purple, and yellow clouds to appear once again. Stompz was stomping around in his ritualistic dance, and Speedy charged at Macbeth so fast that no human eye could keep up with him. He bit Macbeth in various spots multiple times, all in less than the blink of an eye, and Macbeth started to look weak.

"Charity, use draco beam on that filth that dares to dirty Macbeth with his foreign saliva! Macbeth, try to shake him off with a dragon dance!"

"Stompz, use draco beam on Charity to sop her draco beam! Speedy, keep it up!"

Just as Charity was charging her attack, Stompz's shot her right on her neck, knocking the wind out of her and sending her into the wall. It was now clear why Ryou's side of the field was burnt. Multiple draco beam attacks had charred the walls. Speedy was barley phased by Macbeth's dance and continued biting him as if he were a piranha. Once his bite fest was finished, he jumped off of Macbeth and shot towards Charity. As he did so, Macbeth fell to the ground on his side with swirly eyes.

Daniel called him back and called out another male Drakeon, which he then ordered to perform a draco beam on Speedy. It didn't faze Speedy at all, and it merely hit Charity instead, hitting her so hard that her eyes were swirly. He then called her back and replaced her with another female as Speedy shot off towards the new male. Stompz cast a wide-eyed glance towards Ryou.

_Nii-chan_(1) _sure has this covered,_ he said with a slight nervousness to his voice. _Should I even be out of my X at this point?_

Ryou returned Stompz's gaze and shook his head.

"Even if you'd just be in the way, this _is_ a double battle. I'll just leave you out for now."

As soon as they finished talking, Speedy was done with the male and sot at the female. He male was clearly done battling, so Daniel replaced it with another male. Shinju's color had faded back to her normal skin tone as she stared at what Speedy was doing. Her eyes were wide as she watched him bite the female into submission, and Daniel looked distressed. He had absolutely no idea how to defend himself against something like Speedy.

Once Speedy was done with the female, Daniel replaced his fallen partner with another female. The little color he had was starting to drain from his face as Speedy finished off the male. He called it back, but didn't replace it. He hung his head as Speedy finished off the female and jumped off. Speedy wasn't even the slightest bit tired or out of breath from his biting frenzy. All he did was stand as if he were waiting for his school bus to come to his stop as Daniel called back his last Pokemon with shame.

"All of Daniel's Pokemon are unable to battle!" Shinju declared happily. "The victory goes to Ryou and Speedy!!"

Ryou called back Stompz and ran to hug Speedy.

"You were so great!" he muttered as he dug his face into what felt like fur. "You totally kicked that jerk's ass!"

Daniel sulked off into the back door without even saying a word as Shinju came running towards Ryou at an unusually fast pace. She wrapped her arms around him, pinning him to the ground with the happiest giggle she had ever produced and smiled so happily one would think she just got the question popped to her.

"Yay!" she cheered. "Now I don't have to date that dolt! Thank you soooooooooooooooo much, Ryou-kun!"

Ryou mumbled something, but Shinju couldn't hear it because his face was almost buried in the ground. She loosened her pin a bit, allowing Ryou's words to come out more audibly.

"Did you forget what he said before the battle at all?"

Shinju went a little pink and backed away from him for a moment, covering her mouth like before and turning away as Daniel came out of the back door. He threw something towards Ryou as the boy called back Speedy and cast a slight glare at him.

"There's your proof that you beat me. A shed scale of Macbeth's. Now get out of here, boy. Farewell."

Ryou and Shinju were now outside. Ryou was looking over the scale, as if expecting that something would fall off of it. And something did. It was a seal in the shape of a dragon fang. He took a good look at it, then put both that and the scale away in his bag.

"So, are you ready to face the Grand Fifth?" Shinju asked.

"Of course I am!" Ryou replied energetically. "What would make you think I'm not?"

Shinju smirked.

"Race ya."

"I'll fine you a million if you lose!"

And the two of them took off, Shinju in an obvious lead.

* * *

(1)Nii-chan—Japanese for "big brother" in an endearing way. The full version would be onii-chan/onii-san. There's also aniki for boys that like to give off the idea that they're tough.

Oh deary me oh my, is that romance I'm smelling in the air? -giggle- Also, I hope you guys won't mind who the Grand Fifth is. Be sure to tell me how surprised you are if you're going to review! (or not if you don't feel like it) -more giggling-


	10. The Date

Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING!!!

Note: You'll just LOVE who the Grand Fifth is. -snicker-

* * *

As they made it out of the tunnels separating the last city from this new one, Ryou was amazed. There were Jolteon all over the place. Especially near this one building with gigantic iron rods coming out of the top. On that building were numerous Jolteon using electric type attacks on the rods, and with every attack the lights got brighter for a moment.

But he did notice something strange on the other side of the city. Everything over there looked like it was made of steel, and there were these strange creatures that looked like Eevee if they were made out of iron rods of different lengths and widths. The heads of these creatures were like iron orbs with a round lump where the nose would be, and flat sheets of iron where the ears would be. The neck fur was just a bunch of thin sheets spread over each other to look like fur.

_What in the world!?!_ Ryou thought. _Those things are freaky!!! Where did they come from?_

"I see you noticed the Ireon," Shinju commented. "What do you think about them?"

"They're...weird, to put it lightly," Ryou replied.

"D'ya notice what the Jolteon are doing at the power plant?"

"The what?"

"The power plant. Over there!" She pointed at the building with the huge rods sticking out of it.

"Oh. Yeah. What _are_ they doing?"

"They're using electric attacks to power up the place. It's really beneficial to them, too. See, the more they shock those rods, the more power they can produce. It's kind of like training for them. They get stronger with each zap they deliver!"

"Does the Grand Fifth use those to train, too?"

"Nope. His Jolteon are too strong. They'd short-circuit the power plant, causing massive blackouts to occur. He has them spar with each other until they get tired."

"That's interesting. Now will you show me where his building is?"

Shinju started to look nervous and embarrassed as she answered, "Nope. Not now, anyways. How about we share an ice cream cone and call that a date so that you don't have to worry about it?"

"What're you hiding?"

"Nothing! What makes you say that?"

"The fact that you're avoiding the Grand Fifth. Is he another pervert like Daniel?"

"No... He's worse..."

"What could possibly be worse than-"

"Why hello there, Ryou! Long time no see!" a familiar male voice called.

"-Daniel...?"

Ryou looked towards the source of the voice and saw that it was Roger. Shinju hid her face behind one of her hands.

"My father..." she mumbled as if answering Ryou's question.

"Good point..." Ryou mumbled as Roger came dashing up to the two of them.

"So it _was_ you, Ryou!" he commented joyously. "I was afraid I mistook you for someone else!"

_How could you?_ Ryou thought. _I'm like the god of sun-tanning compared to these people..._

"So, Ryou, do you have any thoughts and or feelings towards my daughter, yet?"

"Can it, Papa," Shinju mumbled angrily. "He's just here for his battle with you and then he'll be gone."

Roger took a good look at Shinju and grinned.

"You _do_ have feelings for him, don't you?" he asked.

"WHAT!?! What makes you think that!?!"

"You're blushing, plus you didn't deny it just now."

"SHUT THE HELL UP!!!" Ryou shouted. "Now can I battle you or not!?!"

"Sorry, but one of my Jolteon is taking a nap right now. I won't be able to battle until later."

"Why is it napping!?!"

"Cause we just finished a fight with this red-headed kid. He kicked my ass, though. Wouldn't be surprised if he beat Trace easily, either."

"Trace?"

"The Grand Sixth," Shinju answered. "He's one of Papa's friends from back when he started being a trainer."

"Is he as bad as him?"

"Just what do you mean?" Roger asked, casting a suspicious look at Ryou.

"No. He at least knows not to force his dreams on other people." She cast a glare towards her father.

"What?" he asked, pouting slightly. "Is it so bad for a guy to want to be a grandfather as soon as possible?"

"Just why do you want to be a grandfather, Roger?"

"Because I love my grandpa ever since I can remember, and because of that, I aspire to be a great grandpa just like him! I'm already one step closer towards my goal in having had a daughter! Now I just need for her to find the man of her dreams so that she-"

Shinju had put her hand over her father's mouth, which silenced him.

"Ryou-kun, how about we go look around for a house to rent?"

"Sure. Just keep your father away from us."

"Deal. Now, shouldn't you be tending to the power plant, Papa?"

Roger's shoulders sunk. "You're no fun at all, you know that?"

As he walked off to the power plant, dragging his feet, both Shinju and Ryou sighed in relief. Shinju started walking towards the market, so Ryou followed. He never really knew how a house was rented down here. He followed her into the black-roofed building, marveling at some of the items that were on the shelves.

_Wow!_ he thought. _Back home they don't even sell half the stuff that these guys do! There are manuals on how to do everything related to Pokemon here! Back on the surface you had to find specialty shops for this kind of thing!_

Shinju peeked back at Ryou and asked, "Is there anything you like, Ryou-kun? I'll get it for ya. Just grab it and put it in a basket if you want it."

Ryou nodded, grabbing a basket from a nearby pile and started to fill it with all sorts of grooming and breeding items. He even picked up a couple of manuals on how to make food for different kinds of Pokemon. A few minutes later, he walked up to Shinju with his basket full and crammed full of the things he took off the shelves. There was even a portable poffin cooker in there that ran on Pokemon electricity.

"Wow," Shinju mumbled. "Do you want to be a breeder or something?"

"Nope," Ryou answered. "I just wanna be able to do this stuff myself so that I won't have to worry about having someone else do it."

Shinju glanced at his bag and asked, "Are you sure you'll have room for all of that in your bag?"

"Yep! My bag seems to be like an endless void of items! I haven't run out of room yet!"

"Okay, then."

They were now at the counter, which relieved Ryou. His things were a little heavy in that basket. A man wearing a black and white uniform stepped up to the counter and took a good look at the items Ryou selected.

"Do you want that basket?" he asked.

"No thank you," Ryou replied.

"Will that be all?"

"No. We wanted to rent a house as well."

"What pattern would you like? Here we have lightning, bubbles, and a steel décor."

Shinju looked towards Ryou and he answered, "Bubbles, please."

"Alright. Now, I'll just need to see the ID of whoever's going to take care of this."

Shinju pulled out a card from inside her jacket and said, "Here."

The guy took a good look at the card, checking both the back and the front. As he took a look at the front, he gasped and nearly dropped the card.

"Holy crap," he mumbled with wide eyes. "S-So you're..."

Shinju nodded.

"I-I see. I'll have the house ready for you two in half an hour. Now may I suggest the usage of-"

"No thanks," Shinju interrupted. "We'll be fine for now."

"Of course."

He went towards the back, swiping Shinju's card in some strange device, which beeped. He came back, handing Shinju's card to its rightful owner, and she put it back in her jacket.

"The house you'll be staying in is right next to the Center. Have a nice day, you two."

He bowed and went into the back of the building, in a room only employees could enter.

"Are you going to take your stuff or not?" Shinju asked.

"Oh, right," Ryou mumbled, putting his things in his bag. "What was with him, anyways? And why didn't you have to pay anything?"

"Pay?"

"You know, hand currency over to receive an item from a store."

"Oh. We don't do that. Trainers can get anything they want, but they're very limited depending on how many Grand ones they've beaten. I can get whatever I want because I'm the best in all of Eaveon. And because I'm the best, some people get ecstatic about meeting me. He must be one of those kinds."

"That sounds nice. What am I limited to at this point?"

"Well, let's take the stuff you wanted just now as an example. After beating the Grand First, you could only get manuals and healing items. The Grand Twins allow you to purchase certain ingredients for foods as well as some of the stuff to make them. Beating the Grand Fourth would allow you to get basic grooming items, but not the high-end stuff you picked out. Beating Papa and Trace will get you access to light massaging items and some better grooming things. Beating the Seventh gets you access to the best grooming stuff and medium-grade massaging items.

"Beating the Eighth allows you to get the good grooming stuff, and the Ninth will let you buy portable things like that poffin cooker. The Tenth'll getcha basic access to single apartment rooms, and the Eleventh will let you rent a hotel room. The Twelfth will get you into actual houses, but only the kind that you can share with other people. You'd even have to sleep in the same bed as another dude. The Thirteenth will let you at least sleep alone, but you'll still have to share a house with up to five other people. The Fourteenth gets you some more privacy because you only have to share a house with up to three people, the Fifteenth you'll share with just one person, and the Sixteenth you can have a whole house to yourself. Beat the Seventeenth and you can have anything you want any time you want it."

"And how is that last one different from being in your spot at all?"

"The only difference is the amount of fame you get. Beat the best in all of Eaveon and you'll get this fancy ceremony to bring people's attention to you and all that crap. I _hated_ that ceremony."

"Why?"

"Because I had to follow strict rules. If I even breathed wrong it would give me a bad rep and make people think I'm an easy target."

"Then why not let them think that?"

"Because then people will come at me nonstop for long strings of time, which would be very annoying."

"But didn't you say it might be fun like that?"

"Maybe if I got one challenger a day, but not once an hour. You know?"

"I see. That _would_ get annoying after a while. Why would they even do that in the first place?"

"Because if you show disrespect during the ceremony, people will think that the only reason you won is because you were lucky, and therefore if they can beat you, they can shove it in your face that you're a lucky nobody who didn't even deserve the title of being the best."

Ryou blinked for a moment.

"That's harsh. Why are people like that down here?"

Shinju shrugged, replying, "Dunno. High sense of honor and working hard, I guess."

"What next?"

"I dunno. Wanna go get ice cream?"

"Why ice cream?"

"Because it's my favorite food in the world! Besides, I need some to make up for the fact that Daniel killed my last cone before I could finish it."

"Sure."

"Great! I now just the place around here, too!"

Shinju grabbed Ryou's wrist, dragging him off at an unheard of pace to who knows where in the city.

Once Ryou could move his legs at a pace he preferred again, he found himself standing in line in front of a cart with a blue parasol with Shinju still gripping his wrist. There was a man at the cart, taking out scoops of ice cream and placing them on cones, handing them over with a smile to the young children in front of the two of them. Once they were the first in line, the man cast his smile towards the two of them.

"What'll it be you two?"

"Creamy vanilla marshmallow, please!" Shinju answered.

"Do you have banana?" Ryou asked.

The man nodded. "Of course I do! I'll be just a second."

He grabbed a couple of cones and sunk his scoop deep into the cart. When it came out, there was a lump of ice cream in it that was a white color. It looked so smooth and creamy that it seemed it would melt off of the cone if Shinju didn't eat it fast enough. He handed the cone to her after placing the ice cream in it and she started licking it happily. The man reached into the cart and pulled out a lump of yellowish ice cream of the same texture as Shinju's. He put it in the cone and gave it to Ryou, who accepted it gladly.

"Have a nice day, you two!" the man said, and Shinju started walking to the right, nearly startling Ryou into dropping his ice cream since he forgot she still had a hold on him.

Where she was going was a mystery to Ryou, but he stuck with her patiently. His ice cream was nearly gone by the time they came to the orange-roofed building that was the center. Once there, Shinju started to look around for something, and she smiled when she spotted a bubbly house. She dragged Ryou over to it, starting to eat the cone her ice cream was on, and stopped at the door. She crouched down and peeked under the mat, finding a key, which she used to open the door. She dragged Ryou in just as she finished her cone and let go of his wrist to search the place. Ryou finished off his cone as she was doing so, licking off the ice cream that had dripped onto his fingers.

_That was a great ice cream,_ he thought. _I wonder what Nira Tama's like down here._

He started wandering the house as well, admiring the design of the place. He found a hallway with three doors in it. One of them was labeled "bathroom", and the other two had no label whatsoever. He did notice something on one of the door knobs, however. It was a "do not disturb" sign.

_Shinju must've claimed this room,_ he thought. _I guess I'll take the other one._

He opened the door and took a good look around the room. It was fairly sized, with a nice bed against the wall and a computer against an adjacent wall to the bed. The computer looked like it was only for phone usage, though, because there wasn't any sort of modem attached to it in sight. The closet doors looked like the same as the one he entered the room with, only the knobs weren't as orb-ish. Ryou yawned, stretching his arms out as he did so.

_I guess it's time to go to bed,_ he thought as he jumped onto the bed.

It was a very comfy one. He could tell the moment he laid down that it was adjusting to the shape of his body. He took off his scarf and shoes, and laid them on the floor next to his bag. He then tucked himself under the covers and snuggled his head into the pillow and awaited sleep to take him over.

* * *

Nyawww, so cute at the end there, huh? Please review as you leave with the thought of those two! -giggle- 


	11. Shockingly Grand Iron

Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING!!!

Note: Nothing to say right now.

* * *

The next morning, once Ryou was awake and ready to go, he decided to leave the house Shinju rented and try to find her father's building himself. The only reason why he's even bothering, though, is because Shinju seems to have slept in this morning, and he didn't feel like waking her up. After about thirty minutes or so of searching, he could find no such building that he thought Roger would battle him in.

_Okay,_ he thought. _If his building doesn't look like a Jolteon, then where could it possibly be hiding?_

He turned his head around, eyeing some buildings for a moment, then shaking his head at them. His eyes then gazed at the power plant, which made him pause for a moment longer than the other buildings. After some mental deliberation, he shrugged his shoulders and ran off towards the power plant on a whim. When he entered through the visitor's entrance, he was amazed.

Every time he heard a Jolteon cry out from the roof, he noticed that an electric current was running down huge rods and into what looked like a gigantic car battery. The electricity came out on the opposite side of the rods, going into these thick wires covered in rubber, which eventually spread into multiple thin wires that went into the ground. There were some men with rubber suits on, climbing onto some of the older batteries to fix a wire connection, or they were tending to the wires running into the ground to make sure they were properly twisted together. Some Jolteon accompanied them, putting some part of their body on any open part in the circuitry as if to either point it out or keep the power from shocking the men.

He then noticed that he was standing on a platform high above all of this dangerous work, and that there were some Jolteon walking along the guard rails as if to make sure no small person fell down. On the platform were two vending machines. One with various types of candy bars, and one with various types of Pokemon food. Other than that, this platform was empty.

Just as Ryou was getting bored and decided to leave, he heard a male voice call out to him from below. He looked and noticed Roger was standing next to this guy who looked like he wanted to be a middle-aged rock star, by the looks of his clothing. His hair was a dull gray color, and his eyes were a shiny silver-ish color. He was waving towards Ryou with a hand cupped around his mouth.

"Oi!" The man shouted. "I suppose you'll be wanting to challenge us, boy?"

"Of course I do!" Ryou shouted back.

"Then come on down, Ryou!" Roger called.

"How in the world am I going to do that!?!"

"Just jump and one of the Jolteon will catch you!!!"

Ryou shook his head at the two of them, rolling his eyes as he did. He was _very_ skeptical about jumping down there, especially from this height, and he wasn't too accepting of the fact that he was going to be caught by a Jolteon. He didn't doubt that it could catch him, really. It was more so the matter of how one would catch him without hurting him.

Just as he was about to think of a safer method to jump with, he felt a hand push him over the railing and down onto the floor which was about, oh, 50-60 feet below him. He fell, taking away about thirty feet from the fall, when he felt something tingle throughout his entire body. The sensation lasted until he hit the ground, leaving him a little mystified. He then noticed that a Jolteon was at his feet, taking a good look at him to make sure he was okay.

"What in the world just happened?" Ryou mumbled, surprised that he wasn't dead by now.

"One of the Jolteon caught you!" Roger said, as if it were an obvious thing. "Its buddies came along and helped to soften your fall, and the one right in front of you is making sure you aren't hurt."

"And if I _did _end up getting hurt...?"

"That one would send shock waves into your body to stimulate it into healing at a faster rate than normal."

"Is that even safe?"

"If it weren't, would we even have asked you to jump?"

"Then why not just install a lift or something!?!"

"We did. We just like making trainers jump to see how brave they are," the middle aged rocker answered.

Ryou got an anime vien as he asked, "Can we just get to the battle already?"

"Boy, this kid sure is impatient," the rocker commented.

"So what if he is, Trace?" Roger asked. "It just means that he thinks he's ready sooner than other people. But," Roger cast a soft glare towards Ryou, "that doesn't mean you'll win. Ready to take me on?"

"Of course I am! And I'll kick your ass, too!"

"Really, now?"

"You bet! And maybe then you'll shut up about trying to stick me with Shinju!"

"Again?" Trace asked, glancing at Roger.

"Yeah," Roger replied, a little less serious than a moment before. "I can't help it!"

"Oh, I'm sure he can," Ryou mumbled, just barley audible. "Can we get started or what?"

"Sure. Just give me a sec and I'll get to my side of the field."

Before Ryou could even blink, Roger was on the other side, ready to start up the battle. Ryou grabbed an X in his bag as Trace took the position Shinju normally would to judge.

He declared, "Let the battle begin!"

Ryou tossed the X he grabbed, calling out his Torterra, and Roger called out a Jolteon, which he nicknamed Lilly.

"So you call out that one?" Roger asked. "This'll be interesting. I wanna see how your surface Pokemon match up against mine. Now Lilly, use Thunder!"

Ryou smirked as the Jolteon performed its attack. It hit Shellstomp perfectly, but it didn't effect her at all.

"I'm afraid electric attacks won't work on Shellstomp," Ryou started in a confident manner. "You see, she may be a grass-type, which'd make electric attacks weak anyways, but she's also a ground type. I have a clear advantage here, I'm afraid."

Roger's eyes were wide and one of them was twitching in a comical manner. Apparently Lilly didn't have anything to get itself out of this kind of mess, Ryou concluded, so he decided to end the match as quickly as he could.

"Shellstomp, use earthquake!"

Just as the Torterra was about to execute the attack, Roger shouted for him to stop.

"You idiot! If you crack the earth beneath us, you'll destroy the power plant! Think of something else, you twit!"

Ryou blinked. "Oh. Whoops. Sorry. Shellstomp, use mud shot instead!!!"

The Torterra obeyed, confused at first, and made this strange noise, as if it were going to throw up. A lump formed on its neck where its throat was, and it opened its mouth, shooting a ball of mud at the Jolteon in front of it. It hit, making it difficult for the electric Pokemon to move, and after a moment of struggling, its eyes went swirly and it fell to one of its sides.

"Lilly is unable to battle!" Trace declared. "The round goes to Shellstomp!"

Roger called back the Jolteon and called out another, which he had nicknamed Zoomz.

"Zoomz, use extremespeed!" he commanded.

It hit Shellstomp like Lilly's Thunder, having no effect whatsoever. Ryou had Shellstomp do another mud shot, which hit its opponent and claimed another victory. Roger's third Jolteon was nicknamed Jolty, and it had less success at a victory than his buddies did. It didn't even get a chance to attack before the mud shot hit and finished it off.

"Shellstomp has defeated Roger's final Pokemon! The victory goes to Ryou!"

Ryou cheered, hugging his Torterra before he called it back. While he was doing so, Roger and Trace had switched places, confusing Ryou for a moment.

"Let the battle between Ryou and Trace begin!" Roger declared.

Ryou hesitated for a moment while he decided on what Pokemon to use next.

_Shinju called those things Ireon, right?_ he thought. _Ireon... Kinda sounds like my mother's iron... so I'll go for Flame!_

He called out his Rapidash as Trace called out an Ireon he called Skillet.

"Use mirror shot, Skillet!" Trace commanded.

His Pokemon shone bright for a moment, then the sine turned into a beam which shot towards Flame. She dodged gracefully, and Ryou smirked once more, putting a worried look on Trace's face.

"Flame, use flamethrower!"

Ryou's Rapidash shot a beam of harsh fire at its opponent, putting a bit of a worried look on Roger's face as well. Trace, however, surprised both Ryou and Roger by calling out another attack.

"Use mirror coat!"

The flamethrower was reflected back at Flame at twice its original power, hitting the Rapidash like a bulls-eye. It didn't seem hurt by it, though. In fact, the flames that made up its mane got larger. Ryou smirked.

"Sorry. See, Flame has this ability called Flash Fire. That means every time she gets hit by fire attacks, she doesn't take damage, but instead gets the power of her fire-type moves boosted for the duration of the battle. Now use fire blast!"

A large burst of fire came from the Rapidash's mouth, spreading out in five directions as it approached its opponent. Once it hit, the Ireon was knocked back so far that it nearly put a dent in the wall had it not dug its feet into the ground to prevent it. It took the attack, getting a severe burn, and once the attack was finished, it slumped to its side with swirly eyes.

"Skillet is unable to battle!" Roger declared. "The round goes to Flame!"

Trace called back skillet and sent out another Ireon, which he called Griddle, and told it to use flash cannon. It started to charge a ball of light in front of its mouth, but Ryou yawned because it took a whole minute for the thing to charge it. Once he finished his yawn, he told Flame to use flare blitz. She charged at Griddle with the flames on its body just dancing around her and making a beautiful display, and at the exact moment she hit Griddle, it had released its attack.

It missed horribly, however, and the orb of light ended up nearly hitting a wall. A Jolteon had taken the hit to prevent that from happening, however, so the building remained in tact. Griddle fell over with swirly eyes, and Flame trotted back towards its side of the field with a slight burn on its body.

"Griddle is unable to battle!" Roger called out. "Flame wins the round!"

Trace called out another Ireon, which he had named Grill, and told it to use an attack Ryou had never even heard of. It sounded like "iron slam" to Ryou, but he couldn't tell. Grill was making this strange metallic sound before Trace even started giving the command, as if it knew what its owner wanted it to do.

The metallic sound was very annoying, and Ryou had to cover his ears just to keep it from affecting his hearing. He saw Roger and Trace do the same thing while his Rapidash seemed to be making its flames flicker loudly near its ears in an effort to block the sound. Once the sound was finished, Grill's body seemed to be slightly heavier than before, and it charged at Flame with an intent to kill.

Flame just barley dodged it, leaving the Ireon to ram into a pole that held up the visitor's platform. The pole shook violently, making it seem like it was about to fall at any moment, and Grill seemed to be exhausted from the attack. Ryou took his chance and told Flame to use fire blast again, and the attack hit Grill dead center, severely burning it and knocking it over. It took a second for it to be noticeable, but its eyes were now swirly, causing Roger to make his final call.

"Grill is unable to battle! The victory goes to Ryou!"

Ryou cheered again, hugging his Rapidash and calling it back into its X as Trace called back Grill. Roger went to his friend in tears, giving him a friendly hug. Trace returned the hug and tears gracefully, saying something about how their two battles were as graceful and beautiful as they possibly could get. Ryou shook their heads at them and looked around. There was absolutely no way in sight to get back up and onto the visitor's dock, leaving Ryou a little worried about how to get back up. Shinji suddenly appeared, however, and had one of his pokeballs in his hand.

"Just what in the world are those two crying about?" he asked, casting a questioning glare towards Ryou.

"I dunno," Ryou replied with a shrug. "I just finished my singles battles with them, and they just started doing this for no apparent reason."

"You _just_ finished a battle with them?"

"Yeah. I don't know how to get out, though..."

"If you can't find the lift, then just use a flying-type Pokemon, you idiot."

"Did you just call me an idiot?"

"Did I stutter?"

Ryou cast a glare st Shinji, which was returned to him, and lightning shot from their eyes at each other. They were about to go at each other when suddenly a pair of vines wrapped around Ryou and started pulling him up towards the visitor's lift. Shinji was a little surprised by this, as was Ryou, and just stared at the vines. Ryou followed them up with his eyes as they kept lifting him and saw them go over the railing. Once he was high enough, he could see that it was from a Leafeon. _Shinju's_ Leafeon.

Once he was back on his feet next to the Leafeon, he noticed a sensation he hadn't been able to feel for a while since he had come down here. It was fresh air, and it seemed to emanate from the Leafeon.

_I heard they can do photosynthesis,_ he thought. _I guess that's how the people down here get their air supply. The air seems oddly stale to me, though._

Ryou didn't notice it, but he was crouching so that his nose was close to Shinju's Leafeon to get in as much fresh air as he possibly could. Shinju stared at him for a second as he did this, giving him a questioning gaze. As soon as he got his fill of air, Ryou stood up again and noticed Shinju's expression.

"Oh, sorry. It's just that the air's so stale down here... Your Leafeon seemed like such a relief to my lungs. I guess I couldn't help myself."

"Oh, that? Yeah. It's alright. For some reason, most of the ground soil down here isn't all that suitable for plants. The soil above us is good for it, though, but we're having issues about blocking the light right about now. Not many people like the idea of being left in the dark for a batter air supply, so there are people currently working on ways to make plants be bioluminescent."

"Any success?"

"None so far. All that we've come up with are plants that grow ten times larger than normal. At this rate, we're hoping that the plants will just make themselves glow."

"So how are you guys taking care of the air problem for now?"

"We have Leafeon migrate every week or so. They cover about a third of the place at a time, and sometimes stray ones linger a bit to keep the air supply fresh."

"So why aren't there any in this area?"

"It's not in the rotation yet. Don't worry, though. We're really close to the Leafeon city, and that seems to be the only place where plants can grow."

"That'd be a relief."

There was a slight silence as they left the power plant, and it just became afternoon. There was a lot of time to waste, and Ryou didn't really know what to do since he didn't know the area.

"So... what should we do for the rest of the day?" he asked Shinju.

She thought for a moment, then stuck her finger in the air as if she had an idea. She grabbed Ryou's wrist and started dragging him off to do who knows what for the rest of the day.

* * *

Anybody miss the battling last part? Please review! 


	12. Shockingly Grand Iron Double Battle

Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING!!!

Note: I have decided to write the part where Ryou shows Shinju around the surface world as a sequel to this. It will be called "Surface Tension", so you know.

* * *

Once the rest of the day was eaten up, Ryou and Shinju made their way back into the house that Shinju rented and into their bedrooms to get some rest. Ryou, however, found he had slight difficulty falling asleep. This afternoon had reminded him of his friends back on the surface, and that didn't exactly fill his mind with ease.

_Dawn, Lucas,_ he thought, _just why did you have to catch those Pokemon? Couldn't you two have just defeated them instead?_

He tossed and turned for a little bit, then decided that he couldn't sleep and got up. He rummaged through his bag and pulled out his Eaveon Pokedex. He pulled out the screen and started to look through the list of Eevee evolutions that he had never seen before coming down here. He stopped at Ireon and touched the screen where it said, "Show data?" Once he pressed it, the screen only showed Ireon and the Pokedex started rambling off information.

"Ireon, the Hard Body Pokemon," it started. "As Eevee's steel-type evolution, It is perhaps the slowest Pokemon known to Eaveon. It's speed is not favorable, so one should not depend on it going first in battle. It makes up for its lack of speed with its great attack and defense, for there is hardly anything that can put a dent in the iron that makes up its body. Its signature move, iron slam, is a fierce one. When it hits its opponent, it can be sent flying to the top of the highest buildings. The accuracy of this move is not favorable, however, due to an Ireon's lack of speed. This attack is almost always dodged. To obtain an Ireon, one must use a dawn stone on an Eevee during the night."

"That's interesting," Ryou mumbled. "Though, back in the power plant, Trace's Ireon nearly hit my Rapidash. I think that if I didn't feed her all that carbos that I fed her, she probably would've been hit..."

He put the Pokedex away and pulled a dawn stone out of his bag. He stared at it for a moment before pulling out a handful of his X's, calling out the Eevee snoozing inside of them quietly. Once they were out, they yawned for a moment and looked towards Ryou.

_What is it, owner?_ One of them asked. _Why call us out in the middle of the night?_

"I just wanted to see which of you wanted to be an Ireon," he answered, keeping his voice down to a whisper. "Plus, I can't seem to fall asleep."

_You poor thing,_ a female voice commented. _Is there anything wrong?_

"No. Not really."

_Liar. Though, if you don't want to speak of it, that's fine._

Ryou smiled towards where he believed the voice to be coming from and held the dawn stone out so that all of his Eevee could see.

"Okay, I'll just keep it simple. If you want to become an Ireon, all ya gotta do is catch this. If you don't, find some place to hide, and quick."

He gently tossed the stone towards the small pack of Eevee, and most of them scrambled to get away from the stone. One Eevee didn't bother running away from it, though it seemed like that one hadn't completely woken up. Once the stone hit the Eevee's head, it started glowing. Once it finished glowing, it was a full-fledged Ireon, with a body so hard that Trace just might be jealous. Ryou called back the rest of his Eevee and put their X's away in his bag.

"Have you heard of a move called iron slam?" Ryou asked.

_Yeah,_ his Ireon answered sleepily. _What about it?_

"Do you think you could go learn it while I try to fall asleep?"

_Alright. But you'll have to let me out of this house somehow._

Ryou opened the window in his room and said, "There. Do you need me to pick you up so that you can get out?"

_Not at all. Now before I go, isn't there some kind of witty nickname you'd like to give me? You've done so with Brute and Stompz._

"Slammer," Ryou answered without even thinking. "You'll be Slammer, Okay?"

_Alright,_ the Ireon replied. _I'll see you in the morning._

With that, the Ireon jumped out of the window. Ryou closed it so that nothing could get in and lied down once again to try an fall asleep. Dreams came to him easily from that moment on, and he enjoyed his rest.

* * *

The next morning, Ryou awoke to the sound of Shinju knocking on his door.

"Wake up, Ryou-kun!" she said loudly. "I wanna hurry up and move on to the next city! Papa's town is getting boring!"

Ryou lazily got up, gathering his things and awaited his little "shower" from Swimzy and a good "blow-drying" from Wingzy. They went by quickly, and he got his hair into its usual shape and put his scarf back on around his neck while slinging his bag over his shoulder. He made his way to the front door, with Shinju ahead of him, and left. An Ireon ran into Shinju, knocking her down so that she landed on her butt and hands. She stared at it for a moment as it walked to Ryou, nudging his leg a little.

"Slammer?" Ryou asked.

The Ireon nodded, so Ryou put it back into its X an put the X away.

"Since when did you own an Ireon?" Shinju asked.

"Since last night," Ryou replied. "I couldn't sleep, so I evolved one of my Eevee and told it to train so that it could use iron slam."

"I see. Now, Ryou-kun, there are special rules to the double battle in this place."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, both Papa and Trace have an odd amount of Pokemon, so you can choose wheather or not you want to battle them both at once or separately for your double battle."

"And if you choose to fight them at the same time, do you have to wait for someone else to come along?"

"Yeah. I heard from Papa that Shinji wanted to take care of them both at the same time, so he's currently waiting for you in the Power Plant."

"He didn't sleep there last night, did he?"

"Yeah, he did. Trace was able to put something up to keep the light of the Jolteon's attacks from keeping him up, though, so it shouldn't have been too bad."

"Why not just let him snooze in a house or something like you're doing for me?"

"Because not all Grand ones live in the same cities where their buildings are, and we're only allowed to share living spaces when we have rented or when we own the property."

"Why's that?"

"It minimizes the risk of people stealing. I don't know exactly why, though. Or why a person would even want to steal."

"So where exactly _is_ your house?"

"It's with Mama. She lives in the Grand Finale's city."

"The Grand Finale?"

"Yeah. Some Grands have nicknames because saying 'the Grand' whatever his number is can get boring to the tongue after a bit. Like how the next Grand one is sometimes known as the Lucky Grand!"

"Why's that?"

"Cause his number is seven. Haven't you heard that it's lucky?"

"Oh. Right."

Once they finished their conversation, they had made it to the power plant's visitor's area. Shinju pushed Ryou down and jumped after him, and they both landed safely on the ground. Trace and Roger were already there, though, and Shinji looked like he just woke up.

"It's about time you got here," Shinji mumbled, glaring at Ryou while rubbing his eye.

_That glare must be plastered on his face or something,_ Ryou thought as everyone took their places.

Ryou and Shinji were at the challenger's half of the field, Trace and Roger were at the Grand's side of the field, and Shinju took her place as the referee. Ryou, Roger, and Trace grabbed an X (Shinji was still using Pokeballs) and awaited Shinju's signal to start.

"The double battle between the challengers Ryou and Shinji and the Grand ones Trace and Roger shall commence! Begin the battle!"

Roger called out Lilly while Trace called out Skillet. Ryou called out Flame as Shinji called out his Weavile. Each Pokemon looked ready to fight, and the look in their eyes blazed with the heat of battle.

"Lilly, use Thunder on that fire Pokemon!" Roger commanded.

"Skillet, use iron slam on the black Pokemon!" Trace called out.

"Flame, use flamethrower on Skillet!" Ryou declared.

"Weavile, use ice shard on that Jolteon!" Shinji ordered.

Weavile's ice shard was the first attack to go, hitting Lilly with such force that she was sent flying into the wall behind Roger. Flame's flamethrower shot at Skillet next, burning it with such intensity that its eyes swirled. Shinju declared both Pokemon unable to battle, so Roger and Trace called them back. The next Pokemon they sent out were Griddle and Zoomz.

"Griddle, use mirror shot!"

"Zoomz, use thunderbolt!"

"Weavile, ice shard again!"

"Flame, use fire blast!"

Ice shard went first once more, taking out Roger's Pokemon once again. Flame's fire blast burned Griddle like the last attack did, makings its eyes swirly as well. Roger was uttering some nonsense about how his beautiful Pokemon were getting beaten so easily, and Trace merely had a twitching eye as Shinju declared that Ryou and Shinji's Pokemon won once again. Roger and Trace replaced their Pokemon with their last ones while taking deep breaths to calm themselves.

"Flame, use flare blitz!"

"Weavile, ice shard one last time!"

"Jolty, use quick attack!"

"Grill, use sand attack!"

Ryou was a little taken aback by the fact that his opponents were now using basic moves, but he shrugged it off as he watched the last moves be executed. Weavile's ice shard took out Roger's Jolteon once again with ease, and the Pokemon taunted its opponents a little. Flame's body flames flared around its body as it charged at Grill, and once it hit, its flames burned so intensely that it burned both opponents, but it still took Grill out of the battle, leaving Ryou and Shinji to be the winners.

"Jolty and Grill are unable to battle!" Shinju declared. "Ryou and Shinji take the victory!"

Ryou cheered, hugging his Rapidash before calling it back. Shinji merely smirked as he called back his Weavile, enjoying a quite chuckle to himself. Trace and Roger called back their Pokemon with their heads hung low. They were about to start crying and hugging each other when Shinji pointed at Roger, making some kind of noise as to indicate he had something to say.

"You," Shinji uttered. "The Grand with the Jolteon. I have something to ask of you."

"What is it?" Roger asked.

"Are you related to that girl that refereed the match just now?"

"Why yes, I am! You see, she's my wonderful daughter that I'm very proud of! Why, are you interested in becoming her boyfriend or something?"

"PAPA, SHUT THE HELL UP!!!" Shinju shouted.

"Tch," Shinji chuckled. "As if I'd be interested in her. She doesn't act her age, plus she spends her time cheating by watching her future opponents battle through her excuse of being a referee. She's hardly worth my time."

There was this look on Shinju's face that seemed to portray an unimaginable amount of fury at Shinji's statement. She looked like she was about to pounce when the sound of a slap echoed throughout the air. Shinji put his hand on his cheek. It was red now, and he cast a glare towards Ryou, whose hand was in the air to the side of him like he just slapped someone.

"Do you have a problem with what I said?" Shinji asked, hardening his glare.

"Yes, I do," Ryou replied sternly, putting his hand down at his side. "Shinju's a nice person. She's just having fun in life by doing things most people wouldn't do, and you say it makes her a bad person!?!"

"Not necessarily. All I said was that she wasn't worth my time. I'll only need to confront her when the time comes to battle her and win, giving me the title of best trainer down here."

On that note, Shinji walked off and stopped just below where the door to the visitor's entrance would be, and the floor beneath him started to rise up like a lift. There was a slight moment of silence, and then Ryou blinked. His face went as red as a rose, making him cover his mouth with one of his hands and turn away. Shinju seemed a little puzzled by this action, and Roger was grinning.

"Are you feeling okay, Ryou-kun?" Shinju asked.

Ryou only nodded in response, trying hard not to look at her.

"You don't look okay... Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure already!!!" Ryou blurted. "Can we go now?"

Shinju stared at him for a moment before shrugging.

"Okay!" she replied cheerfully.

She pulled an X off of her outfit and threw it in the air, towards the visitor's platform. Shinji had just gotten there and was making his way out as the X took the form of a ball and let out Shinju's Leafeon.

"Hey, Freshy!" Shinju called. "Could you use vine whip to bring me and Ryou-kun up there?"

The Leafeon nodded and grabbed the two of them with a couple of vines. Once the two of them were back on the visitor's platform, Shinju called Freshy back into its X and put it away. The two of them then made their way out of the Power Plant, Ryou still trying to keep from making eye contact with Shinju. After walking for a moment, Shinju got fed up with the silence and turned to face Ryou.

"Alright, Ryou-kun!" she declared sternly. "You're being too quiet right now! If you don't beat me to the next city, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to do something to make you talk!"

With that, she dashed off. Ryou took a second to get over himself and then chased after her, his cheeks still a little red.

* * *

-giggle- Please Review! 


	13. Dawn's Frustration

Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING!!!

Note: Sorry I haven't updated for a bit. Apparently, my motivation for this series is connected to if I'm excited about playing Pokemon Diamond, and that's been a bit of a problem until I got WiFi. Why? Well, only having one version of Pokemon to play after a while gets BORING, especially if you've caught pretty much every Pokemon that one could catch in Diamond. I've got some new Pokemon over WiFi now, though, so inspiration has struck once again. Not enough to do a long enough part, but oh well. I'm going to have to read this over to remember where I was going to go with the story, but once I do, I promise I'll update some more. Enjoy the next part!

* * *

"And the winner, by a landslide, is Dawn!" an announcer declared at the end of a Master Rank Beauty Contest. "Congratulations once again!"

The female trainer walked up to the judge and accepted the ribbon, putting it upon the horns of her Empoleon, among about 20 other ribbons of the same type. She curtsied, then blew a kiss towards the audience. They squealed so loudly in response that the announcer's glasses cracked, and various cries of "marry me!" could be heard from the men. Dawn merely shook her head, calling her Empoleon back into its Pokeball and leaving the stage. Once she was outside, she took another Pokeball from her belt and threw it into the air.

"Time to fly, Charap!" she called, and a Chatot appeared in a flurry of musical notes.

"Pretty bird!" it said happily, facing its owner.

"Take me to the Battle Zone, will ya?" Dawn asked, grabbing onto the Chatot's legs.

"Pretty bird!" the Chatot responded, taking flight northeast of the building.

* * *

They landed softly in front of a Pokemon Center, the Chatot barley tired, despite the distance that it flew. Dawn pet it affectionately, thanking it for the flight before calling it back into its Pokeball, then skipped over to the right of the center. She closed her eyes, happily humming a tune as she made her way towards a building.

When she stopped, she called out, "Oh, Ryou-kuuun! Ready for me to kick your ass again?"

There was no response, causing Dawn to make a curious sound.

"Ryou-kun?"

She opened her eyes, nearly loosing all of her color at what she saw. Or rather, didn't see. Ryou, who usually stood at this spot around this time, was missing. Dawn, who's normally on a tight schedule due to her recently gained fame as the Champion AND best coordinator in all of Sinnoh, and who usually enjoys a battle with Ryou around this time of the week, was dumbstruck at the sight that her favorite poke-punching bag was not here to get his ass kicked by her for the millionth time. Once she was over the shock, she kicked a nearby tree, soon regretting that action, then called out her Charap once again.

"Charap, take me back to Twinleaf Town, pronto!" she commanded angrily.

Charap seemed confused for a moment at her tone of voice, but then took its place above her as she grabbed its legs and took off once again.

* * *

Once they had landed in front of Dawn's house in Twinleaf Town, she called Charap back and angrily stomped her way to Ryou's house, knocking on the door so hard that she almost put a hole in it.

"Oh, it's you," Ryou's mother uttered as she answered the door. "I didn't think you'd be able to come back to Twinleaf, being all-"

"Can it, lady!" Dawn angrily interrupted. "Where the hell is Ryou-kun!?! We're supposed to be battling over in the Battle Zone, NOW!!!"

Ryou's mother giggled as she replied, "Oh, really? Last time he told me, he was leaving to check the underground tunnels for some Pokemon that people've been saying they saw down there."

"A Pokemon in the underground tunnels?"

"Yep."

Dawn screamed, pulling at her hair and stomping furiously on the ground.

"Damn it!" she yelled. "It'll take forever to search down there!!! But my schedule's too full!!! I can't go around wasting my time underground!!!!" She screamed once again, then pointed at Ryou's mom while glaring at her. "When Ryou-kun gets back, tell him I wanna kick his ass!! And NOT in a Pokemon battle!!!"

The mother giggled as Dawn stomped off angrily towards her own house.

"The poor thing," she mumbled as she went back into her home. "Being such a celebrity must be starting to get to her."

* * *

Told ya it was going to be short. Please review! 


	14. Suprising Rivals

Disclaimer:Guess what portion of Pokemon I own? None of it! D All I can say I own are the characters and Pokemon unique to this fic. P

Note:INSPIRATION HAS STRUCK AT LAST! **-**dances- Now enjoy the next part of Underground Light:D

_

* * *

__Why is it that I have this sudden feeling that I shouldn't return to the surface?_ Ryou thought as he chased after Shinju through the ever-so-dark tunnels leading into the next city. Once they reached the nicely lit city, Ryou was filled with the wonderful sensation that he was breathing surface air again, for the air was heavy with the scents of many, many different varieties of flora, including various types of trees. 

The place they were now in seemed like a plant haven, and it was a little brighter than the rest of Eaveon, for there was a hole in the ceiling large enough to let fair amounts of light in. The buildings were much shorter n this city than the other ones, and Leafeon frolicked along with a bunch of what looked like small, moving bushes. These bushes caught Shinju's attention apparently, for she was gaping in their general direction.

"I've never seen those things before!!!" she cried. "Ryou-kun, do you know what they are?" She was pointing towards the bushes.

As Ryou took a close look at them, he noticed that they weren't bushes. They were more so hedgehog creatures with leaves sprouting off of their backs as if they were tiny bushes, with a cute little flower on their heads that reminded him of his mother's hair clips.

His eyebrows reached for the sky as he muttered, "It can't be..." earning, a curious look from Shinju. He whipped out his Sinnoh Pokedex and aimed it at one of them. The Pokemon appeared on the screen along with a beep.

"Shaymin, the Gratitude Pokemon," the Pokedex said in a generic female voice. "It can purify the air around it to instantly turn a lifeless dump into a flower paradise, and when frightened, it curls up into a ball to appear to be a flowering plant. Sightings of this legendary Pokemon are so rare that some scientists question if it even exists."

"What's a Shaymin?" Shinju asked.

"An uber rare Pokemon that I just HAVE to catch for Dawn!!!" Ryou replied as he pulled two X's out of his bag.

"..But I count two X's..."

"I'm gonna get one for myself, of course!" Ryou replied, grinning.

"If it's such a rare Pokemon, then I'm calling dibs on that one with blue leaves on its back!" Shinju declared, grabbing an X from the inside of her jacket and aiming its laser guidance at the blue-leafed Shaymin.

"Not if I get it first!" Ryou nearly yelled, running towards the Pokemon at about the same speed the X Shinju released was moving at.

As Ryou was nearly there, he held out his arms to tap the blue-leafed Shaymin, along with a green-leafed one off to his right. Just as he nearly tapped the two Pokemon he wanted, a green-leafed Shaymin tackled his face, pushing him slightly to his right. He felt one of the X's hit something, but the other one was being pushed through the dirt. As soon as he stopped, the X that hit a Shaymin had gone into its ball form, and the Shymin that tackled him a second ago decided to cling to his face.

Not thinking, he tapped the empty X on that Shaymin in some attempt to wipe it off of his face and ended up catching that one as well. When Ryou looked, he saw that the blue Shaymin had disappeared from sight. He released the two that he had caught to see where it had gone, but to his disappointment, they were both green. He cast a glance towards Shinju, who was pulling down one of her eyelids while sticking her tongue out at him, waving her ball at him mockingly as if saying, "Haha! I got the blue one and you didn't!"

"No fair!" Ryou whined as he hung his head. "I was going to give that one to Dawn..."

"And just who is this Dawn you keep mentioning?" Shinju inquired. Ryou swore he heard some anger in her tone.

"Dawn's a really good childhood friend of mine," he explained. "Ever since her mom read her the tale of The Shaymin Princess, all she's ever wanted was a Shaymin for her birthday. Shaymin are legendary Pokemon, however, so just finding one is about as eventful as finding someone who was born on a February twenty-ninth. Needless to say, she kept being disappointed year after year on her birthday."

"When's her next birthday coming up?" Shinju asked.

"If I don't lose a battle with anyone down here, I should be back on the surface by the time her birthday comes."

"How old is she going to be?"

"Seventeen."

"And how old are you?"

"I'm about half a year older than her."

"Neat! I'm-"

"So that's where you've been hiding!!!" a fierce female voice called out, causing Shinju to slump slightly.

"Not her again..." Shinju mumbled, turning to face the source of the voice.

The source of the voice was apparently some girl, who seemed to be a female version of Daniel with deep blue eyes, who seemed very pissed off at Shinju for some reason. Her hair, which was a slivery white color, spread out like wings near the roots. Near her waist, which was how long her hair was, was a shape that reminded Ryou of a female Drakeon's tail. Her bangs hung like two yarn-thick antannae in front of her eyes, and there were Drakeon wing hairclips in line with her eyes at the sides of her head. On her right was a female wing, and the left was a male wing. Her elegant white kimono was adorned with the design of Drakeon dancing around, and the than bow around her waist curved like the wings of a female Drakeon.

_Oh great,_ Ryou thought. _Daniel's got a bloody fangirl on his side._

"What do you want now, Misaki?" Shinju asked, her lack of excitement ringing in the tone of her voice.

"Relax, Shin(1), I'm here for that boy, not you," the girl replied.

"How many times have I told you not to call me Shin!?!" Shinju angrily demanded.

"Huh?" Ryou muttered, dragged out of his hateful thoughts of Daniel.

"Your name is Ryou Hayaku, is it not?" Misaki inquired.

"It is. Why?"

"You have defeated Daniel in a humiliating manner. As his replacement-in-the-waiting, I wish to inform you that I shall be watching the rest of your battles from here on out in order to learn how you defeated him and make sure that I do not make that same mistake he did."

"Fat chance, Misa-Misa!" Shinju interjected angrily. "He used the same kind of mysterious Pokemon that I wield in order to defeat that dolt Daniel!"

"Then I shall find that Pokemon's weakness!!!" Misaki snapped. "And Don't call me Misa-Misa!!!"

"I'll keep calling you Misa-Misa as long as you keep calling me Shin!!!"

The two girls kept arguing on the spot like rabid dogs barking at each other, and while that was going on, Ryou took the chance to get away from those two before he got involved, calling his two Shaymin back into their X's. Eventually, he found a building with Leafeon ears sprouting from it and entered, admiring the Leafeon art upon the walls. Just as he was about to open the door into the next room, the door had slammed into his face as Shinji walked out with that perpetual glare stuck on his face. He did notice Ryou once he was three feet from the way out and turned to face him.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked.

"Waiting for the pain in my face to go away," Ryou bluntly replied. "How was your fight with this grand?"

"Too easy. My Weavile wiped out each of his Pokemon in one shot." Shinji paused for a moment. "Oh, there's this Misake girl looking for you."

"That girl with the Drakeon Kimono?"

"Yeah."

"Her name's Misa_ki_. Not Misake."

"Whatever. She said to bug you about finding her, though I see you've already met. What did she want?"

"Something about stalking me since I beat Daniel in a 'humiliating' manner. I ran from her while she was arguing with Shinju, though."

"What about?"

"I can't remember everything, but the last thing I heard was something about how they weren't calling each other by their proper names."

"Women," Shinji muttered, turning towards the exit. He paused for a moment, then uttered, "Ryou, is it?"

"Yeah."

"Shinji, in case you haven't learned it by now. I'd like you to show me around Sinnoh once we get back up to the surface."

"You mean you can actually stand the thought of being with me for more than a battle's length?"

"I'm speaking with you right now, aren't I?"

"...Point taken."

"Just so you know, the only reason why I don't have many friends is because hardly anyone can get along with my attitude. I would like to be your friend, however..."

At this point, Ryou was twisting his pinky fingers in his ears to clean them out. He wasn't sure he had heard Shinji entirely, but he could've sworn the prick had just said he'd like to be Ryou's friend. When his ears were clean, Shinji was gone, and not a single trace of him was left in the room. Ryou shook his head and shrugged it off, heading into the next Grand's room. There was a boy around his age spraying full restores on four Leafeon in front of him, and afterwards he was spraying max elixers on them.

This boy had short black hair fit for a school boy, bright green eyes, and his skin was just as pale as any other Eaveon resident. He wore a green bandana around his neck with a white L centered in the area a person would normally see looking at him from the front. He wore what appeared to be green gardening clothes, with a matching pair of gloves, and black, squarey oval-shaped glasses upon his face, which were sliding down his nose. Just as he finished spraying his Leafeon, he pushed his glasses up and looked towards Ryou.

"A-Another challenger so soon?" he squeaked shyly. "Wow. It's a good thing I healed my team, then..."

"I suppose you're the Lucky Grand, as Shinju put it?" Ryou asked as the boy called back his Pokemon.

"That would be me," the grand replied. "I suppose you'd like to know my name?"

"Sure. I'm Ryou Hayaku."

"I'm Luigi Xavier(2). I suppose you're the other surface trainer Shinji mentioned?"

"I wasn't entirely aware that he mentioned me, but yes, I am."

"I've heard a bit from Shinju and the other Grands about you as well. At the rate you're going, you're going to get a fanclub pretty soon!"

Ryou paused for a moment. "Can we just get to battling already?"

"Oh! Right. Please pick your Pokemon."

"Gladly," Ryou responded, pulling out an X from his bag with a confident smirk upon his face.

* * *

(1)-Shin is a boy's name. That's why Shinju gets mad when Misaki calls her that.

(2)-I named this guy after a trainer, who was REALLY nice and gave me a CRAPload of Pokemon I didn't have through WiFi, as thanks for said Pokemon. If you wanna bug me about meeting me on WiFi for ANY reason at all, please do so through review, but do try to mention your opinion on the chapter you're submitting the review for. I don't want to be spammed with friend code requests ust so that you'll get some sort of cameo in here. On that note, please review!


	15. Luckily Grand Battles

Disclaimer:Guess what portion of Pokemon I own? None of it! D All I can say I own are the characters and Pokemon unique to this fic. P

Note: More inspiration! Mainly from reading this awesome Pokefic somewhere else on the sight, but who cares? I'm making another part!

* * *

"Go, Flame!" Ryou called as he tossed an X into the arena, releasing his Rapidash.

"Do your best, Leafy!" the Lucky Grand cheered as he sent out a Leafeon.

"Flame, use flamethrower!!!"

Ryou's Rapidash shot a beam of intense flames at its opponent.

"Leafy, dodge with dig!"

And the Grand's Leafeon dug out of the way, missing the scorching hot flames.

"Bend it!" Ryou commanded, and his Pokemon's attack followed after the Leafeon into its hole.

Nothing happened at first, but after a moment, Leafy came scrambling out of its hole with the flames right on its tail. It was burnt all over, and its eyes were swirling like crazy. If there were a judge here, he'd have called the poor Leafeon out. Luigi recalled his Pokemon and sent out another.

"Let's get him, Luigi!" he cried, aiming the call at his second Leafeon.

"Flamethrower again!" Ryou commanded.

Again, the Leafeon was singed before it could retaliate, making its eyes swirly. Its trainer sighed as he called it back and sent out a third one, named Xavier.

"Leaf-" Luigi began, but Ryou had cut him off.

"Flamethrower again!"

Once more, the Leafeon was knocked out before it could blink. Its trainer sighed once more as he called out a fourth, nick nameless Leafeon.

"Flamethrower!" Ryou called just as the Leafeon finished coming out, singing it into fainting once again.

"You win," Luigi sighed deeply as he called back his Pokemon.

"That was all?" Ryou inquired. "Jeez. Just what do they require of Grand ones down here, anyways?"

"The first condition is that you specialize in using only one type of Pokemon," the Grand replied. "The second is that you be the best who specializes in the type. Being the only one who specializes in Grass types around here, I'm, by default, the best."

"Then why haven't you been getting other people to go for Leafeon? They provide all the fresh air down here, right?"

"Outside of this specific city, yes. I've tried finding a replacement, but they just don't seem to like Leafeon all that much..."

"Would you say you're the easiest Grand one to defeat?"

"More like easiest trainer to defeat! My win to loss ratio is just plain horrible! I can't even remember the last time I've won!"

"Yikes..."

Ryou turned to leave, apologizing for having possibly burnt his Leafeon, and left.

_Shinji was right,_ he thought. _That Grand _was _too easy. _"I just hope the rest aren't that easy. It wouldn't be fun racing my way up to my battle with Shinju like that!"

Ryou was grinning as he left the Grand's building, but that grin was quickly wiped away, for there were two girls casting hard looks at him. Those girls were Shinju and Misaki.

Ryou laughed nervously as he uttered, "H-Hi...?"

"Ryou-kun!" Shinju yelled. "How dare you battle a grand without me to referee!!! Especially while I was busy arguing with Misa-Misa!"

"It's Misaki, you twit!" the Drakeon fan snapped. "And how dare you not allow me to watch said match!!!"

"B-But... I..."

"Just for this, I'm not letting you share a house with me tonight!" Shinju declared, walking off with a stomp to her step.

"I shall, but you're sleeping on the couch!" Misaki demanded, grabbing Ryou's wrist and forcefully dragging him around.

* * *

This house was a little different than the ones Shinju always rented. It actually had a sign on it with Misaki's name on it, and it was personally decorated with a dancing Drakeon pattern. Even the furniture on the inside was modeled after Drakeon. The couch in the living room, thankfully, only had a dancing Drakeon pattern to it.

"Did you specially order this house for rent or something?" Ryou muttered.

"No," Misaki harshly replied. "I live here."

"O-oh... Why not just have a house in that Drakeon city, if you're going to take Daniel's place?"

"Because A, the houses are expensive there, and B, Daniel lives right next door!"

Misaki had finished that last sentence with a hint of song in her voice, and Ryou went white.

"He lives next door to here?" Ryou asked with a hint of fear.

"Yep! He's rarely home, though, so you can relax."

"Okay. Is there any particular reason why you chose to live so close to him, other than the replacing him part?"

"Because he's just so awesome!" She had a grin to her face, and she now had the air of a fangirl about her. "The way he battles, the gracefulness of his Drakeon! I love everything about him! I was even the head of his fan club until he picked me to replace him!"

"He has a fan club?"

"Yep! Every good trainer does!"

"Even Shinju?"

"Of course she does! The best trainer in Eaveon always has the biggest fan club with the most members. Having to inquire about such a matter would be stupid."

"Do the fan clubs still exist even when the person has lost their rank?"

"Depends on the person. Usually those kind of people are fickle, though, so they just hop on to the next guy in the position they admired."

"What do the members do?"

"I'm not sure about every club, but in Daniel's, I assigned a group to keep an eye on him during his time in his building, a group for when he wandered around Eaveon, and a group to watch him at home."

"So you pretty much led a group of stalkers?"

"Yeah. It was pretty fun while I was still in it, but now it's kinda fun mocking them while they casts glares at me."

"What for?"

"They hate that Daniel's given me such a close position to him. Everybody in that club has pretty much wanted to fuse some part of their body to Daniel in order to stay with him forever, but the closest a member's ever gotten to that is what I've got."

"Yikes..."

"Oh, and I'd be on the lookout if I were you."

"What for?"

"After your battle with Daniel, I've noticed that some of his fan club members were following you. I'm not sure what they want exactly, but they've been picking up at least two more people for every city you've been in. Might even be getting your own fan club soon."

"What about Shinji?"

"That red head? Not sure, really. I've only been following you, so I wouldn't have noticed if he got anyone following him. Now get to bed. It'll be dark soon, and I don't want to waste electricity."

"O-Okay..."

With that, he took his place on the couch as Misaki went off into a bedroom.

* * *

The next morning, after he got up, he peeked out the window as if searching for something. He couldn't see anything other than the ordinary, so he decided to leave for the Grand's building. About halfway there, he tripped over something. When he looked, he saw that it was a block with letters of the alphabet on its sides. As he stared at it for a moment, a small kid walked over to his spot and picked up the block.

"Sowwy, mista!" the girl apologized, skipping away in the exact direction she appeared from.

"That was weird..." Ryou muttered as he got up, brushing dust off of his outfit.

Once he was finished, he completed his walk to the Lucky Grand's building. Once again, just as he was about to enter the battle room, Ryou was again greeted by a pain in his face from the door suddenly opening in his face. Again, it was Shinji who opened the door, but this time he walked on as if Ryou were completely invisible. Once he was finished rubbing his face, he walked into the battle room and greeted the Lucky Grand. He was healing his Pokemon like the last time.

"Morning!" Ryou greeted as he took his place on the arena. "I suppose Shinji just beat you again?"

"Of course he did!" Shinju replied, grabbing Ryou's attention. She was standing in her usual referee spot. "The double battle will begin the moment Luigi is ready, got it?"

"Yeah."

After about a minute, Luigi finished spraying his Pokemon with medicine and left two of them out for the double battle. Ryou sent out his Rapidash and Stompz, and Shinju declared the start of the battle. Luigi began to utter a command for his Pokemon, but Ryou was again to quick and ordered his Rapidash to use flamethrower on them again. They went down quicker than they did yesterday, and Shinju announced their defeat. Luigi sent out his next two Pokemon, and Ryou once more took them down in one shot with his Rapidash. Shinju declared Ryou the winner and he walked up to the Grand after calling his Pokemon back.

"Well, you beat me again," Luigi muttered. "I suppose you want the item from me now?"

"That would be helpful," Ryou replied.

Luigi dug into his pockets and pulled out what looked like a leaf seal.

"Here you go," he said as he handed Ryou the seal. "The grass seal. Farewell."

Once outside, Shinju giggled.

"What?" Ryou peeped.

"It's the next city," she began to reply. "It's gonna smell so much worse than here, and I was just imagining your face when you first catch whiff of it."

"I don't think I'll let you see that face," he mumbled.

"Why not?"

"Cause I'm going to beat you to the next city! If you don't see my reaction, you'll owe me one thousand Pokedollars!"

With that, Ryou dashed off, and Shinju followed closely behind with a smirk to her face.

_There's no way I'm going to miss your face!_ She thought.

* * *

Gah. That kinda felt like I was forcing it out. Was it still okay? 


End file.
